The Dubai First Instance court recently issued a decision, in favour of one of our clients, quashing the claimant's claim of compensation for damaged cargo after it fell from one of the port's cranes. This verdict is so important, because for the first time,the court followed a different approach whereby they accepted that actual delivery is delivery stipulated in the Bill of Lading as opposed to construing physical delivery as the only legal delivery. Indeed, the Dubai First Instance court has deviated from the previous established legal court doctrine which separated the “discharge” operation from the “delivery”, whereby it was considered that delivery could take place “by placing the cargo, in its B/L described status, at the actual possession of the receiver or its agent in manner which would enable such receiver or agent to examine the cargo even if the cargo was not yet discharged.” 1   

According to previous Dubai Court of Cassation rulings, delivery is not: