Claims examples

01/01/2007

Check the ship before taking it on!

A ship manager accepted the management of a ship, but had not inspected it. In fact due to a high staff turnover in their technical department, nobody from the managers visited the ship. The owners went on board some ten months...

01/03/1995

Ship manager makes late payment of release P&I call

The former manager of a ship which had been sold received a debit note for the P&I release call. The terms of payment of the release call were that failure to pay by a specified date would result in a substantial...

01/03/1995

Ship manager orders repairs in the name of the wrong company

Scandinavian ship managers were appointed as technical managers of a tanker owned by a K/S limited partnership. The management agreement was originally between the ship managers and the shipowning company but was...

01/02/1996

Negligence claim against ship managers

A Member was appointed as technical ship manager of a cruise ship for a period of 2 1/2 years and thereafter was only responsible for placing the hull and P&I insurances and handling claims. A few months after the manager's...

01/01/1997

Refusal by hull underwriters to pay claim

A cruise ship suffered a breakdown of both main engines due to contaminated lube oil and the owners submitted their claim for US$ 3million to their hull underwriters, who rejected it on the grounds that the engine breakdown was...

31/05/1999

Commercial manager caught by “scatter gun”

The sinking of a cargo ship with tragic loss of life resulted in large claims by the bereaved families. As the port of loading had been in the USA, an American lawyer, employing the usual “scatter gun” approach,...

31/05/1999

Technical manager caught by “smoking gun”

The technical manager of a tanker which he had managed for three years, found himself on the receiving end of a claim from the owner for US$ 1,400,000. Multiple claims were made, mostly without any particular merit,...

01/01/2003

Failure to notify agency status

A ship manager in South East Asia ordered bunkers to be supplied at Chittagong on behalf of one of its shipowner clients. Unfortunately, the shipowner did not pay the bunker costs of approximately US$ 60,000. The bunker trader...

01/01/2003

Prohibited transits

A commercial manager took over a newly built container ship from a Chinese shipyard and arranged a first charter to a Korean company. The charter called for the ship to proceed to load her first cargo at Keelung, Taiwan and...

01/11/2005

STEVEDORE SLIPS

During loading at Los Angeles, a ship’s master received a report of an injury to a stevedore, who had allegedly slipped on a patch of grease on board. The master notified the ship manager of the incident; the master also noted...