An Admiralty Swansong (Video)

• Published date: 06 October 2020
• Subject Matter: Employment and HR, Litigation, Mediation & Arbitration, Retirement, Superannuation & Pensions, Employee Benefits & Compensation, Trials & Appeals & Compensation
• Law Firm: Quadrant Chambers
• Author: Mr James Turner

OVERVIEW

End of an era as Teare J retires as Admiralty Judge with one last collision judgment.

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This morning, 5 October 2020, Sir Nigel Teare handed down judgment in a three-handed collision dispute: Sakizaya Kalon & Osios David v Panamax Alexander [2020] EWHC 2604 (Admlty). This was Sir Nigel's last case as Admiralty Judge, a post he has held for more than a decade - the fourth member of what is now Quadrant Chambers to do so in succession, following Sir David Steel, Lord Clarke and Sir Barry Sheen.

In the years between Sir Barry's and Sir Nigel's retirements, collision actions have altered almost beyond recognition. In Sir Barry's last case, The Vegaland v The Coral Essberger (1993, unreported), computers had yet to intrude at all (other than as word processors). Plots of the navigation for which each side contended were still prepared with pencil on graph paper, often with the assistance of expert master mariners such as the great Norman Cockcroft. And the real focus of the forensic dispute was to establish where and how the vessels had come into collision.

Fast forward three decades. The advent and (nowadays) ubiquity of VDR, AIS and ECDIS mean that - once the computers have done their work interpreting the data - it is now vanishingly rare for there to be a dispute of substance regarding where and how the vessels collided. The focus has instead shifted to why they did. The availability of bridge audio recordings has opened up previously...