Court Rules On Liability For Damage Caused By Breach Of An Unsafe Port Warranty

In Gard Marine & Energy Ltd v China National Chartering Co Ltd (The "Ocean Victory") [2013] EWHC 2199 (Comm), the Claimant Underwriters claimed damages from the Defendant Time Charterers where the vessel was lost on departing Kashima port.

Facts

Charterers ordered the vessel, a Capesize bulk carrier, to discharge at Kashima. The vessel sought to leave the port during a severe gale on the advice of Charterers' representative at the port, a local experienced mariner, that she should leave. The concern was that there was a risk that she could not be restrained by her moorings and/or tugs. As she was leaving, she encountered strong winds and heavy seas in the fairway, ran aground and broke apart.

The Claimants submitted that the port was prospectively unsafe, as there was a risk that vessels moored there might be advised to leave when there were gales in the fairway, such that safe navigation required more than good navigation and seamanship. In addition, they argued, there was no system in place to ensure that vessels left in conditions which did not threaten safe navigation, or that they did not attempt to depart in conditions which posed a threat.

Charterers argued...