General average and cargo interests.

 

In Offshore Marine Services Alliance Pty Ltd v Leighton Contractors Pty Ltd and Another [2017] FCA 333 the Federal Court of Australia was called on to  decide whether parties interested in the cargo, other than the cargo owners at the date of the GA incident, were liable to contribute in general average. A tug and barge carrying construction materials grounded on its voyage from Henderson to Barrow Island and the disponent owner of the barge and tug incurred expenses and costs in securing the common safety of the barge and the cargo, including costs of some Aus $4m associated with stabilising the damaged hull of the barge, re-floating it and towing it back to Henderson with the cargo intact and undamaged.

The disponent owners claimed GA contributions from Leighton and Thiess who had supplied the cargo pursuant to contracts with Chevron. At the time of the incident ownership in the cargo had passed to Chevron, but the disponent owners claimed that Leighton and Thiess had a relevant interest in the goods because under their contracts they remained “on risk” in respect of the goods, and/or were “responsible for the care, custody, control, safekeeping and preservation of” the goods prior to their acceptance by Chevron.

McKerracher J held that a liability to contribute in GA attached only to the owner of the cargo that benefitted from the general average act, or someone contractually liable to contribute would be liable to contribute.

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Professor Simon Baughen

Professor Simon Baughen was appointed as Professor of Shipping Law in September 2013 (previously Reader at the University of Bristol Law School). Simon Baughen studied law at Oxford and practised in maritime law for several years before joining academia. His research interests lie mainly in the field of shipping law, but also include the law of trusts and the environmental law implications of the activities of multinational corporations in the developing world. Simon's book on Shipping Law, has run to seven editions (soon to be eight) and is already well-known to academics and students alike as by far the most learned and approachable work on the subject. Furthermore, he is now the author of the very well-established practitioner's work Summerskill on Laytime. He has an extensive list of publications to his name, including International Trade and the Protection of the Environment, and Human Rights and Corporate Wrongs - Closing the Governance Gap. He has also written and taught extensively on commercial law, trusts and environmental law. Simon is a member of the Institute of International Shipping and Trade Law, a University Research Centre within the School of Law, and he currently teaches at Swansea on the LLM in:Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air; Charterparties Law and Practice; International Corporate Governance.

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