Also known as: docks · docked · docking · prisoner's dock · court dock
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A structure that encloses water, often between two piers, in which ships are received for loading, unloading, safekeeping, or repair.
An elevated platform in a warehouse or building where trucks load and unload goods.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
A structure that encloses water, often between two piers, in which ships are received for loading, unloading, safekeeping, or repair.
Duarte Shipping operates a dock facility handling cargo from foreign vessels and interstate trucks. Congress enacts a uniform tax on imports processed at such docks to fund harbor maintenance. The company challenges the tax as nonuniform, but the power to regulate commerce among the states and with foreign nations authorizes the levy because it applies evenly nationwide.
Nanakuli Paving contracted with Shell Oil for asphalt delivered F.A.S. at the Honolulu dock. Shell argued the term required placement alongside the vessel, but course of performance showed unloading directly onto the dock area. The court permitted evidence of the parties' actual practice to interpret the delivery obligation.
An elevated platform in a warehouse or building where trucks load and unload goods.
An Arizona order required cantaloupes grown in the state to be packed at an in-state dock and warehouse before interstate shipment. Bruce Church challenged the order as burdening commerce. The Court weighed the local interest in quality control against the increased costs and diversion of business to Arizona facilities.
After seizure of the ship Emulous, its pine timber cargo was discharged and floated in a New Bedford creek dock. The district court treated the timber as still subject to prize proceedings while it remained in the dock under tidal waters. The location established continued government custody pending adjudication.
A dock owner erected staging outside a vessel for repair work. A shipowner's servant used the staging and was injured due to its defective condition. The court held the dock owner owed a duty of care to the servant even without a direct contractual relationship, extending liability for negligent construction.
A former employee of a state-operated dock facility sued Maine in state court for overtime wages under federal law. The state asserted sovereign immunity. The Supreme Court held that Congress could not abrogate state immunity through Article I legislation, so the suit could not proceed in state court.
Yes. UCC § 1-201(b)(16) expressly includes a dock receipt among the records that constitute documents of title when issued by or addressed to a bailee covering goods in its possession.
Tender of delivery at the dock conditions the buyer's duty to accept and pay unless the parties agree otherwise. Cash-on-delivery terms require payment upon that tender even if later inspection occurs.
Yes. Private necessity permits tying a vessel to a pier when reasonably necessary to protect the vessel from serious harm such as an unexpected squall. The pier owner may not recover for resulting damage.
…of Winterbottom v. Wright , in Bohlen, supra , at pp. 281, 283). At all events, in Heaven v. Pender (supra) the defendant, a dock owner, who put up a staging outside a ship, was held liable to the servants of the shipowner. In Elliott v. Hall (15 Q. B. D. 315) the defendant sent out a defective truck laden with…