Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha LTD. et al. v. Regal-beloit Corp. et al. (561 U.S. 89)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 21, 2010 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 561 U.S. 89 · 130 S. Ct. 2433
- Decided
- June 21, 2010
- Term
- October Term 2009
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. These eases concern through bills of lading covering cargo for the entire course of shipment, beginning in a foreign, overseas country and continuing to a final, inland destination in the United States. The voyage here included ocean transit followed by transfer to a rail carrier in this country. The Court addressed similar factual circumstances in Norfolk Southern R. Co. v. James N. Kirby, Pty Ltd., 543 U. S. 14 (2004). In that case the terms of a through bill were controlled by federal maritime law and by a federal statute known as the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (COGSA), note following 46 U. S. C. § 30701. Kirby held that bill of lading provisions permissible under COGSA can be invoked by a domestic rail carrier, despite contrary state law. The instant cases present a question neither raised nor addressed in Kirby. It is whether the terms of a through bill of lading issued abroad by an ocean carrier can apply to the domestic part of the import’s journey by a rail carrier, despite prohibitions or limitations in another federal statute. That statute is known as the Carmack Amendment and it governs the terms of bills of lading issued by domestic rail carriers. 49 U. S. C. § 11706(a). I Respondents Regal-Beloit Corporation, Victory Fireworks, Inc., PICC Property & Casualty Company Ltd., and Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance…
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