Independent Petroleum Group Ltd v Seacarriers Count Pte Ltd

Mr Michael Nolan (instructed by Davies Johnson & Co.) for the Claimant Mr Edmund Broadbent (instructed by MFB) for the Defendant Hearing date: 8 November 2006 ____________________

i) The owners had failed to establish a causal link between the alleged unsafety of the port and the loss which the owners claimed to have suffered.

ii) The buoys were moved from their position by bad weather, not because there was any lack of monitoring by the port authorities, and all necessary steps were taken by the port authorities to re-position them.

iii) The grounding of the British Enterprise and the Pongola could have been avoided by the exercise of good navigation and seamanship by the pilots and/or masters.

vi) "As an alternative argument, the charterers submitted that the warranty given in clause 9 of the charterparty, to which the owners had referred, did not extend to the vessel always being able to depart from the berth immediately after completion of loading or discharging. The warranty in that clause, according to the charterers, was limited to the vessel being able to depart from the berth always safely afloat and, as the vessel had done so, there was no breach of the warranty in clause 9." (para. 21)