Alize 1954 and another (Appellants) v Allianz Elementar Versicherungs AG and others (Respondents)

Judgment given

Case summary
Judgment details
Appeal
Change log

Case summary

Case ID

UKSC/2020/0071

Parties

Appellant(s)

Alize 1954

CMA CGM SA

Respondent(s)

Allianz Elementar Versicherungs AG and others

Issue

Whether seaworthiness for the purposes of Article III Rule 1 of the Hague-Visby Rules includes navigational decisions taken by the crew taken prior to commencement of a voyage.

Facts

The Appellants are the owners of the ship CMA CGM LIBRA; the Respondents are cargo interests. The ship was run aground shortly after leaving Xiamen en route to Hong Kong. The grounding occurred due to a series of errors in navigation by the master of the ship during a manoeuvre which took him outside the buoyed fairway running from the port. The master was following a passage plan, made before the voyage, which was defective in that it did not provide proper details warning of the existence of depths less than charted outside the fairway. The judge at first instance held the errors in the passage plan were causative of the master’s errors. The question is whether the errors in the passage plan were such as to make the CMA CGM LIBRA unseaworthy.