The appeal is dismissed.

The costs of appeal are assessed against the Plaintiff.

The grounds of appeal are examined.

1.(a)

A ship agency shall, for a person engaged in marine transportation business, engage in the business as an agent for the transaction belonging to such business and perform all the duties related to the delivery of cargo under a contract with the carrier.

(see, e.g., Supreme Court Decision 2007Da4943, Apr. 27, 2007). Accordingly, a ship agency performing part of the transportation business to be borne by a carrier at the request of a marine carrier as its assistant can be deemed as a carrier’s performance assistant under a transportation contract.

(b) The ship agency of the place of destination in accordance with a transport contract shall be an assistant to the carrier's performance, who shall keep the imported cargo and deliver the cargo to the consignee or the person designated by the consignee, who is the legitimate recipient of the maritime transport, until customs clearance is completed.

Inasmuch as maritime transport cargo must be delivered to its holder in exchange for a bill of lading, if a shipping agency cannot deliver the cargo to a person other than the holder of a bill of lading, it constitutes an unlawful infringement of the right of the holder of the bill of lading to the cargo (see, e.g., Supreme Court Decisions 98Da13211, Apr. 23, 199; 2004Da12394, Jan. 27, 2005).

However, there is a case where a consignee can deliver the original bill of lading immediately at the port of discharge by treating the original bill of lading as already recovered from the place of departure according to the trade practice needs.

In this case, after receiving the original bill of lading from the carrier, the consignor requests the carrier to waive the claim for reimbursement (hereinafter referred to as "surren" in English) pursuant to the bill of lading, and the carrier collects the original bill of lading and imprints the stamp "SURENND" on its behalf.