ABSTRACT
One reason why carriage of goods contracts tend to generate their own particular rules is to be found in the dichotomy between obligations and property.72 Carriage of goods involves, in addition to any contract rights and duties, the legal relationship of bailment. This relationship arises out of any situation where one person (the bailor) transfers to another person (the bailee) the possession, but not the ownership, in a piece of moveable property (a chattel). In the absence of any specific contract, the bailee owes to the bailor a strict duty of care with regard to the chattel bailed.73 And this duty can be discharged only by the bailee producing the goods to the bailor on demand or by the bailee proving that the goods were lost without any fault on his part.74 In return, the bailor owes a duty to reimburse the bailee – in a commercial bailment at least – for any expenses incurred in the upkeep of the goods.75
