liability of the bank that issued the letter of credit and is acting on request of the payer
and by orders or by its own name (the issuer bank), “to make a payment to payee or
accept and make accommodation bills payable issued by a fund payee or enables
another bank (executing bank) to make a payment to the payee or accept and when the
date falls due- issue accommodation bills, or enables another bank to negotiate, if the
documents presented fulfils the conditions of letter of credit” (Civil Code of the
Republic of Lithuania Article 6.935 Part 1). International Chamber of Commerce
(ICC) has issued many regulations in this field, which have facilitated the payoffs
within the international trading. Among these regulations, according to the aim of the
research, 1984-10-01 ‘Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits’
(1983) and Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits No 500 (1993)
have particular meaning. These regulations determine conditions, when the banks
namely enforce their obligations. We suppose, it is necessary to pay attention to
regulations of UCP 400 Article. 27 and UCP 500 Article 26, the main of which is the
requirement to banks to accept (buy) a transport document, if, in the case of extra
conditions, there is an indication that the goods have been accepted for loading or
transporting to another means of conveyance. Thus, if the bank, following the
mentioned guidelines of regulations, refuses to accept a transport document, it is
questionable that the last mentioned could be accepted as of full value securities. On
the other hand, it is questionable whether the owner of this type of bill of lading has
the right to claim the transmission of the cargo from any, including an on-carrier,
person. I assume, the consignee of the cargo (the owner of ‘pure’ through bill of
lading) has the right to claim the transmission of the cargo from the on-carrier only if
the ordinary carrier has taken liability to transmit the cargo to any owner of ‘pure’
through bill of lading. When the on-carrier has assumed the responsibility for the
cargo shipping for only the segment of their cargo transmission itinerary and for
transmission of it to the next carrier, the owner of ‘pure’ through bill of lading’s right
to lay claim to on-carrier is doubtful, because the owner of ‘pure’ through bill of
lading has no legal relationship with the on-carrier and the latter is liable to transmit
the cargo to the owner of personal bill of lading issued by himself or to a person
named in the see waybill. We believe that the owner of the ‘pure’ through bill of
lading can declare a demand only from the initial carrier (who has issued the bill of
lading) or his agent.
As in each through combined service, the civil liability of the shippers in the case
of ‘pure’ through bill of lading is analyzed in ‘view of carriers, who have the right to
dispose the cargo’, and in ‘carriers – sub-carriers’ link. The first relation is not
complicated, as it is obvious, that carrier, who has taken liability for all the carriage, is
the only subject that could be declared a demanded from the owner of bill of lading for
repudiation of the transport contract or inappropriate discharge of that contract. On the
other hand, there is another solution to this problem in the USA: the corrections have
been made to the Interstate Commerce Act by Carmack in 1906 according to which
the consignee of the cargo can lay claims to or sue for lost, damaged cargo or for its
late delivery not only the carrier, who has taken liability or delivered the bill of lading,
but also the carrier, who has to deliver the cargo to the final destination (De Witt,