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Chapter 48:01 - Common Carriers

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L.R.O. 1/2012
LAWS OF GUYANA
COMMON CARRIERS ACT
CHAPTER 48:01
Act
18 of 1916
Amended by
4 of 1972
Current Authorised Pages
Pages
(inclusive)
Authorised
by L.R.O.
1 – 7 ... 1/2012
LAWS OF GUYANA
2 Cap. 48:01 Common Carriers
L.R.O. 1/2012
Note
on
Subsidiary Legislation
This Chapter contains no subsidiary legislation.

LAWS OF GUYANA
Common Carriers Cap. 48:01 3
L.R.O. 1/2012
CHAPTER 48:01
COMMON CARRIERS ACT
ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS
SECTION
1. Short title.
2. Interpretation.
3. When mail contractors, coach proprietors, and carriers, not to be
liable.
4. (1) When any package is so delivered an increased rate of charge
may be demanded.
(2) Carriers to give receipts for increased charges.
5. Public notices or declarations by carriers.
6. Every office used to be deemed a receiving house.
7. Special contracts not affected.
8. Parties entitled to damages for loss may also recover the increased
charges.
9. Nothing herein to protect felonious acts.
10. Coach proprietors and carriers liable only to damages proved.
11. Money may be paid into court in all actions for loss of goods.
__________________________ 1929 Ed.
c. 116
1953 Ed.
c. 279 _______________________________________________________
18 of 1916 An Act for the more effectual protection of Common
Carriers for hire, against the loss of or injury to Parcels
or Packages delivered to them for conveyance or
custody, the value and contents of which shall not be
declared to them by the owners thereof.
[2ND SEPTEMBER, 1916]
Short Title.
1. This Act may be cited as the Common Carriers Act.

LAWS OF GUYANA
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Interpretation.
When mail
contractor,
coach
proprietors,
and carriers,
not to be liable.
[4 of 1972]
2. In this Act-
“common carrier” means any person who undertakes
provided he has room, either expressly or by a course of
conduct, to convey for hire or reward the goods or
certain classes of goods of all persons who choose to
employ him; and by “person” in this definition is meant
and included the State as well as any company, firm or
individual;
“package” includes parcel.
3. No steamship, railway, tramway, or omnibus,
company or firm, mail contractor, stage coach proprietor, or
other common carrier by land or water, or partly by land and
partly by water, for hire, shall be liable for the loss of or injury
to any article or articles or property of the descriptions
following, that is to say gold or silver coin of this realm or of
any foreign state, or any gold or silver in a manufactured or
unmanufactured state, or any precious stones, jewellery,
watches, clocks, or time-pieces of any description, trinkets,
bills, notes of the Bank of Guyana, or of any bank in any
Commonwealth country, orders, notes, or securities for
payment of money, English or foreign stamps, maps,
writings, title deeds, paintings, engravings, pictures, gold or
silver plate or plated articles, glass, china, silks in
manufactured or unmanufactured state, and whether
wrought up or not wrought up with other materials, furs, or
lace, or any of them, contained in any package delivered,
either to be carried for hire or to accompany the person of any
passenger in any mail or stage coach or other public
conveyance, when the value of the article or articles of
property aforesaid contained in that package exceeds the sum
of one hundred dollars, unless, at the time of the delivery
thereof at the office, warehouse, or receiving house of the
common carrier, or to his book-keeper, coachman, or other
servant, for the purpose of being carried or of accompanying
the person of any passenger as aforesaid, the value and nature
LAWS OF GUYANA
Common Carriers Cap. 48:01 5
L.R.O. 1/2012

When any
package is so
delivered an
increased rate
of charge may
be demanded.
[4 of 1972]
Carriers to give
receipts for
increased
charges.


Public notices
or declarations
by carriers.
of the article or articles or property have been declared by the
person or persons sending or delivering it or them, and the
increased charge hereinafter mentioned or an engagement to
pay that charge, is accepted by the person receiving the
package.
4. (1) When any package containing any of the articles
above specified is so delivered and its value and contents
declared as aforesaid, and that value exceeds the sum of one
hundred dollars, the common carrier may demand and
receive an increased rate of charge, to be notified by some
notice affixed in legible characters in some public and
conspicuous part of the office, warehouse, or other receiving
house, where packages are received by them for the purpose
of conveyance, stating the increased rates of charge required
to be paid over and above the ordinary rate of carriage as a
compensation for the greater risk and care to be taken for the
safe conveyance of those valuable articles; and all persons
sending or delivering packages containing the valuable
articles aforesaid at the office shall be bound by that notice,
without further proof of its having come to their knowledge.
(2) When the value has been so declared and the
increased rate of charge paid, or an engagement to pay it has
been accepted as hereinbefore mentioned, the person
receiving the increased rate of charge or accepting the
agreement shall sign and deliver a receipt for the package,
acknowledging it to have been insured, and if that receipt is
not given, or the notice aforesaid has not been affixed, the
common carrier shall not have or be entitled to any benefit or
advantage under this Act but shall be liable and responsible
as at common law, and be liable to refund the increased rate
of charge.
5. No public notice or declaration heretofore made or
hereafter to be made shall be deemed or construed to limit or
in anywise affect the liability at common law of common
carriers as aforesaid, for or in respect of any articles or goods
LAWS OF GUYANA
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Every office
used to be
deemed a
receiving
house.

Special
contracts not
affected.

Parties entitled
to damages for
loss may also
recover the
increased
charges.


Nothing herein
to protect
felonious acts.
to be carried and conveyed by them; but every common
carrier as aforesaid shall be liable as at common law to answer
for the loss or any injury to any articles and goods in respect
whereof he is not entitled to the benefit of this Act, any public
notice or declaration by him made and given contrary
thereto, or in anywise limiting that liability, notwithstanding.
6. For the purpose of this Act, every office, warehouse,
or receiving house, used or appointed by any common carrier
as aforesaid for the receiving of packages to be conveyed as
aforesaid, shall be deemed and taken to be the receiving
house, warehouse, or office of that common carrier; and any
common carrier shall be liable to be sued by his name only;
and no action or suit commenced to recover damages for loss
or injury to any package or person, shall abate for the want of
joining any co-proprietor or co-partner in the mail, stage
coach, or other public conveyance by land or water for hire as
aforesaid.
7. Nothing in this Act contained shall extend or be
construed to annul or in anywise affect any special contract
between a common carrier and any other parties, for the
conveyance of goods and merchandise.
8. Where any package has been delivered at any office
aforesaid and the value and contents declared as aforesaid
and the increased rate of charge paid, and those packages are
lost or damaged, the party entitled to recover damages in
respect of the loss or damage shall also be entitled to recover
the increased charges so paid as aforesaid in addition to the
value of the package.
9. Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to protect any
common carrier from liability to answer for loss or injury to
any goods or articles whatsoever arising from the felonious
acts of any coachman, guard, bookkeeper, porter, or other
servant in his employ, or to protect the coachman, guard,
bookkeeper, porter, or other servant from liability for any loss
LAWS OF GUYANA
Common Carriers Cap. 48:01 7
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Coach
proprietors and
carriers liable
only to
damages
proved.
Money may be
paid into court
in all actions
for loss of
goods.
or injury occasioned by his own personal neglect or
misconduct.
10. A common carrier shall not be concluded as to the
value of any package by the value so declared as aforesaid,
but he or they shall in all cases be entitled to require from the
party suing in respect of any loss or injury proof of the actual
value of the contents by the ordinary legal evidence, and the
common carrier shall be liable to those damages only which
are so proved as aforesaid, not exceeding the declared value,
together with the increased charges as before mentioned.
11. In all actions to be brought against any common
carrier aforesaid for the loss of or injury to any goods
delivered to be carried, whether their value has been declared
or not, the defendant or defendants may pay money into
court in the same manner and with the same effect as money
may be paid into court in any other action.
________________