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NEWS & KNOWLEDGE Covid 19 – Force Majeure voyage disruption under TOWCON and UK Standard Conditions for Towage May 2020 In this article published in Tug Technology and Business we set ourselves the premise that a tug and tow have been prevented from reaching the agreed destination, because of disruption caused by Covid-19. We consider the potential effects of this delay briefly in the context of The UK Standard Conditions for Towage, of ad hoc […] CONTINUE READING	TOWCON 2008 and the coronavirus » On 11 March 2020 the World Health Organisation designated the Covid 19 virus as a pandemic. We have since received a number of enquiries specifically about where the parties to a TOWCON 2008 contract stand in respect of Clause 27 . This slightly odd clause combines a war risk clause with, effectively, a force majeure […]
	“Best Management Practice” – The English High Court Considers obligations on a Master » On 5th July 2011, the laden tanker Brillante Virtuoso was off the coast of Yemen drifting in darkness in some of the most dangerous waters of the world. Shortly before midnight, it was boarded by armed men who put in motion a chain of events that would see the owner condemned by the High Court […]
Coronavirus – Issues and effects in relation to laytime and demurrage » Copyright: cns photo via REUTERS As China grapples with the growing tragedy brought upon them by the coronavirus, the shipping industry and container operators in particular, are already feeling the down-turn in business caused by the shutting of major manufacturing plants. In procedures that were seen around the time of the Ebola outbreak, ports and […]	NEWS & KNOWLEDGE Nigerian Piracy – Have we reached a tipping point? January 2020 There seems to be no sense that Nigeria piracy is slowing and in the past month we have seen a step change in tactics as the pirates have upped the ante by taking hostages from laden vessels in numbers not seen before[1]. At the same time, reports have come in that the three crew members […] CONTINUE READING
Keith Harper chaired the Management and Prevention of Containership Fires seminar » Keith Harper, Master Mariner Solicitor Consultant at Tatham & Co, chaired the Management and Prevention of Containership Fires seminar which took place on 6th December in London. This seminar was part of the 22nd Salvage and Wreck Conference. 2019 saw an unprecedented number of container fires incidents. On average a fire broke out every week, […]
NEWS & KNOWLEDGE Making without prejudice (save as to costs) offers December 2019 This article looks at the pitfalls of negotiating a settlement and how best to increase your chances of avoiding being ordered to pay your opponent’s costs. Sometimes resort to the courts or arbitration is unavoidable. Fortunately for clients’ pockets, and a solicitor’s blood pressure, this is quite a rare event. One factor that encourages parties […] CONTINUE READING	SCOPIC wording offers protection for salvage contractors » Salvors prefer rich pickings. Where, however, a ship has a low damaged value, and where there is no valuable cargo on board that can be saved, there is little to incentivise a salvor to undertake a rescue operation. In the past, if the vessel grounded on or sank off the more remote shorelines of the […]
	How a lack of class can be costly » Having recently ourselves settled a case involving a tug that had fallen out of class shortly before the incident in question, it was interesting to see that such a case has recently found its way from an arbitration award to the Court of Appeal in London. It is seldom the case (and was not in […]