IN THIS ISSUE
1. Liability of Terminal Operator for Lifting Contaminated Goods
2. Lloyd’s Open Form Contracts Reported in 2015
3. Tour d’Horizon
4. Yacht Focus
5. Financial Resolutions for the New Year
6. People and Places
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1. Liability of Terminal Operator for Lifting Contaminated Goods
Dr. Marco Remiorz of the Hamburg firm of Dabelstein & Passehl
allows a rare visit (for this publication) to German maritime law on
intermodal operations.
Writing in the current edition of forwarderlaw, Dr Remiorz describes
a recent Hamburg case considering the liability of a terminal operator
to a consignee whose goods were damaged during unloading as a result
of coming into contact with other, noxious goods. When the consignees
faced clean-up costs of over 750,000 Euros they refused to pay, arguing
that the terminal should be liable for the resulting costs, in a claim
that proceeded to the Hamburg Court of Appeal and ultimately to the
Federal Court of Justice. The claimants were unable to direct their
arrow at anyone other than the carrier, despite appeals to the transport
law of Germany.
http://www.forwarderlaw.com/library/view.php?article_id=1026
2. Lloyd’s Open Form Contracts Reported in 2015
Joanna Waterfall has sent in the Roote and Partners review of 2015
in terms of the LOF contracts agreed during the year. This firm produces
an excellent casualty report which also deserves to be better known.
The partners of the firm seem largely to come from one of the very large
maritime law firms sorely tried in the market conditions of recent year:-.
2015 has seen an increase in the number of LOF contracts agreed and
this must come as welcome news to the salvage industry. We are pleased
to provide this Supplement to the Casualty Newsletter which provides
details of all the LOF matters reported to Lloyd’s Salvage Arbitration
Branch throughout this year.
During 2015 there have been 49 LOF contracts reported to Lloyd’s
Salvage Arbitration Branch, a figure which is significantly up on last
year’s (all-time low) of 31 contract although still lower than
the 2013 figure. It is a requirement under the LOF (2011) contract that
the salvors notify Lloyd’s within 14 days of their engagement to
render services under the LOF agreement so it is hoped these figures
are accurate.
Of the 49 LOF contracts reported, some 13 of the casualties prompted
the salvors to invoke the SCOPIC clause which provides for the salvage
remuneration due under the contract to be assessed in two ways, by reference
to the Article 13 criteria and on the basis of tariff rates. In addition
some of the LOF contracts agreed, including the ongoing salvage operation
to the Hanjin Aqua, incorporated further special provisions governing
the salvage remuneration due and altering
the way the salvage reward is calculated.
Our list provides details of the casualties. Almost all of these have
at some point been reported on in our Casualty Newsletter and we include
below the editions where any reference to the casualties has been made.
Over the course of the year there have been 26 groundings, 11 casualties
where the vessels had suffered technical difficulties including two
where water or fire had resulted in the engine breakdowns. Three of
the contracts involved fire-fighting services, two followed structural
failure and one resulted from a collision with the affected vessel eventually
sinking. Five of the LOFs reported relate to salvage services performed
to yachts and the salvors were tug owners rather than professional salvors,
with the
exception of the Elizabeth which was assisted by Resolve.
See the list in full here:-
http://www.rooselaw.co.uk/RoosePartners%20Lloyds%20Open%20Form%20Round%20Up%20-%202015.pdf
3. Tour d’Horizon
This thinking out loud on the industry, by InterManager’s President
Gerardo Borromeo, in the form of a new year’s message should be more
emulated by others serving in the alphabet city of our various industry
bodies. It might clear the sore heads which characterise this time of
year, here and there. Read the thoughts here:-
https://www.scribd.com/doc/294350119/2016-InterManager-President-New-Year-Message
4. Yacht Focus
We have a high regard for this regular publication from the yacht team
over at Hill Dickinson led by Tony Allen. The winter edition has a lot
to say on the vexed problem of overvaluation of yachts, the MLC and
opportunities in Asia. Well worth a read:-
https://sites-hilldickinson.vuturevx.com/16/697/uploads/yacht-focus-winter-2015.pdf
5. Financial Resolutions for the New Year
This being the time of year when we tend to survey the tipsy turvey
geography of our personal finances, we were forcefully struck by this
piece in the Yorkshire Ranter blog by Alexander Harrowell which desribes
the personal spending of the great war leader Winston Churchill whose
ways with money were less than comanding:-
In short, he did every damn thing you are advised against, and lost
hilarious amounts of money. After he got rich, he had another crack
at those Canadian resources small caps in the 1950s and whadda ya know?
He lost another boatload of cash. He didn’t even manage to use
his political connections to rip people off by insider-trading –
when he was minister of munitions in 1917, you’d think he’d
have had better things to do than load up on three smokeless coal startups,
all of which went down the plughole quick smart.
In fact, he tried all the ways rich men find to lose money, except
yachting and mistresses. He fell in love with houses, and fell out with
architects. He got a private pilot’s licence, one of the very first.
He spent far too much on clothes, sports, cigars, and booze. He went
in for rich guy farming, which gave him another classic, a losing business
to feed. It was probably fortunate for us all that he tended to get
himself invited aboard other people’s yachts rather than buying
one himself, as tht would certainly have led to bankruptcy and disgrace.
Read the piece in full here:-
6. People and Places
MarineTraffic, the AIS vessel tracking service has joined the Licence
on Transfer (LOT) Network.
The LOT Network was formed to promote innovation by reducing the risk
of litigation from Patent Assertion Entities (PAEs), also known as Patent
Trolls. The LOT Network has 47 members across many industries, including
some of the world’s most recognised names, and contains over 327,000
worldwide patent assets.
———-
Gulf Navigation, the Dubai-based tanker firm, has confirmed the appointment
of Parag Jain as the company’s new CEO. Jain had been acting CEO
since May of this year. He has been with the company since 2010.
———-
Jos Denis has published the Xmas edition of his Box Intermodal publication,
dealing with the industry from a continental perspective. Make sure
you have decent sized bandwidth. The file is quite large
http://tinyurl.com/boxintermodal
From the Avo Archive
The website of this newsletter contains all the editorial material
since the inception of the Maritime Advocate as a print based quarterly
in 1997 under the founding aegis of John Guy, Chris Hewer and Manfred
Arnold. Readers can go to the site and search the database on the home
page in its entirety. If you are looking forpiece from Issue an old
case, an old controversy or you would just like to see how many times
you and your firm have featured in our annals feel free to access the
archive. It is like this e-zine, free to Readers and we always appreciate
the support of advertisers and sponsors.
Looking for our earliest reference to Yachts and Yachting we turned
up this period piece which all sounds true to this day. It appeared
in the old paper format in Issue 7 of April 99:-
Well met in Auckland
ONE of the arriving delegates to the recent International Congress
of Maritime Arbitrators meeting in New Zealand apparently asked an airport
official what time he should set his watch for. He was told, "Just
set it back fifteen years." New Zealand is supposed to be behind
the times in most things, but arguably not in anything that really matters.
Auckland in March was an exotic setting for ICMA 99. And it seems to
have lived up to expectations. As to the attendees – 147 in all, from
23 countries – it was the same hard core of delegates who usually frequent
ICMA, with the customary strong support from London and New York. The
big surprise, though, was the fact that the largest contingent was from
China.
There was certainly plenty going on. Watching the Americas Cup presentation
sounds hi-tech. And driving through the unchanged countryside and meeting
the Kiwis must have been comfortable and pleasant, like seeing old friends.
There was a dinner-dance, and a home-based dinner experience. And there
was the Maori challenge.
There was also a splendid dinner at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron,
with a good emcee, who provided something of a first – at least on the
record – by explaining that London dislikes New York and New York dislikes
London and the rest of the world dislikes London and New York. He also
questioned the ICMA acronym, and suggested an alternative – the Conference
Of Maritime Arbitrators. It just wouldn’t work. How could you tell the
taxman you had just spent five days in a COMA in New Zealand?
The papers were learned and plentiful, and the mock arbitration could
have been less catholic. But it was entertaining, even if those who
lacked the necessary sense of humour, or who missed the subtlety of
the language, may have been confused by the plot.
ICMA XIV will be in New York, from October 15 to 19, 2001. New York
doesn’t do subtle, but it will be eventful.
http://www.avoarchive.com/searchBI.php
Dogs and Cats
David Grainger of JLT Specialty sent in this contribution by Warren
Ellis, writer of graphic novels and a blogger of renown, in response
to our last edition and the thoughts on cats:-
We domesticated cats because back in ancient times cats were huge bastards
and had a jaw span that exactly encompassed a human head and therefore
taming and breeding them down into a portable size was only sensible
and contributed to a longer period of time attached to our heads. Cats
remember this, and exist in contentment because they know that deep
down we do to and that’s why we serve them food and don’t
wring them like a sink rag when they shit on the floor.
Dogs, on the other hand, haven’t changed much since the megafauna
era, where they were basically just furry barking wasps. We domesticated
dogs because, well, we were at the top of the food chain and worked
out the important stuff like meat and god being the sun or a rock or
something and we thought it’d be fun to domesticate four-legged
wasps. Dogs exist in joy because they’re basically just fucking
wasps and are just happy we notice them. Until they kill us. Because
they’re wasps.
Auld Acquaintance
The New Year’s Eve party had turned into a marathon with numerous guests
coming and going.
At one point, a man knocked on the door, was greeted heartily though
no one knew who he was, and was led to the bar in the basement.
He sat there happily for about an hour before a strange light dawned
on his face.
"You know," he confided to his host, "I wasn’t even
invited to this party. I just came over to tell you that some of your
guests’ cars are blocking my driveway.
My wife’s been sitting out in the car waiting for me to get them moved
[Paul Dixon]