Macclenny Products, Inc. v. Tropical Shipping and Construction Co‪.‬

Appellant, a clothing manufacturer, appeals the final summary judgment and trial court award of damages resulting from the destruction of three shipments of jackets aboard appellee's vessels. The parties disputed the extent of appellee's liability under the federal Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (""COGSA"") which limits a carrier's liability to $500 per package. This case presents the question of what is the relevant ""package"" to which COGSA's limitation of liability should be applied. The trial court determined this issue by summary judgment. We hold that material issues of disputed fact remain and reverse. For approximately ten years, appellee has shipped appellant's materials and merchandise between Florida and the Dominican Republic. Every week appellant ships materials to X-Cell Fashions (""X-Cell""), located in Santiago, for it to assemble the men's jackets; and every week X-Cell returns seven to twelve containers of assembled jackets to appellant in Florida. After assembling the jackets, X-Cell places each jacket on a hanger, wraps the jacket in plastic, and hangs the jacket in a forty- foot shipping container that appellee supplies to X-Cell. Appellee's forty-foot containers can carry between 4,500 and 5,000 jackets. Appellee has the loaded container transported from X-Cell's factory to the port in Puerta Plata where it is loaded on appellee's vessel and shipped to Florida. When appellee receives the loaded container, X-Cell provides appellee its shipping documents from which appellee completes a bill of lading. X-Cell usually does not receive a copy of the bill of lading until after the jackets have been shipped.