Plaintiff, Cortina China Ltd., sold a consignment of shoes to a Venezuelan buyer on FOB terms (meaning that the buyer was responsible for arranging carriage from China to Venezuela). Through the services of a freight forwarder, the Venezuelan buyer contracted with Defendant, an NVOCC, for transportation of the goods from Qingdao to Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. Defendant issued a straight Bill of Lading naming Plaintiff as shipper and Plaintiff’s Venezuelan buyer as consignee. Defendant released the goods at the port of discharge without presentation of the original Bill of Lading, with the result that Plaintiff was not paid for the shoes. Plaintiff sued Defendant, which argued that it had never had any contact with Plaintiff and had never been told by Plaintiff that it could not release the goods without presentation of the original Bill of Lading.