IN THIS ISSUE
1. Little Pork Pies don’t Count
2. York Antwerp Rules 2016
3. Nine Dash Line UNCLOS and When a Rock is a Rock
4. Damage to Communications Cable in Norway by Prawn Fishermen
5. More Esperanto
6. People and Places
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1. Little Pork Pies don’t Count
Tanya Phayre of hfw has sent in a short note on the case of the DC
Merwestone where the Supreme Court of England has drawn a distinction
between fraudulent insurance claims (which are fabricated or dishonestly
exaggerated), and valid claims supported by embellished evidence. Versloot
Dredging v Gerling Insurance [2016] UKSC 45
The background
The dispute in the case concerned proceedings arising out of damage
to the DC MERWESTONE (the vessel) from water ingress, which caused flooding
to the engine room and incapacitated the vessel. During investigation
of the owners’ claim, an individual in the vessel’s managers informed
the underwriters’ lawyers that the bilge alarm had sounded shortly after
the ingress of water in the engine room, but that the crew was unable
to investigate it due to adverse weather. It subsequently transpired
that the individual’s account of what happened was a "reckless
untruth".
At first instance, whilst the Court found that the loss suffered by
the vessel was caused by an insured peril, it upheld the underwriters’
fraudulent device defence that the individual of the vessel’s managers
had recklessly given a false account of the circumstances surrounding
the bilge alarm, which was intended to promote the claim.
At common law, if an assured makes a fraudulent claim on his insurer,
the latter is not liable to pay the claim. The Court’s decision was
upheld on Appeal.
By a 4 to 1 majority, the Supreme Court reversed the earlier judgments
and held that the rule on fraudulent claims does not apply to a "collateral
lie" which turns out when the true facts are revealed to have been
immaterial to the assured’s right to recover.
See the Judgment here:-
https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2014-0252-judgment.pdf
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2. York Antwerp Rules 2016
Our inbox contains a circular from the Steamship mutual commending
the result of the redrafting of the York Antwerp Rules 2016. The circular
itself is well written and lucid in its explanations and descriptions.
The Club commends the new Rules to its members. The circular says that
the other Clubs have also issued something similar. We dare say these
can be found on the various websites. But none of these estimable bodies
have thought to send us a copy. The Steamboat seems to be animated by
a certain activist spirit. In the highly saturated P&I market, going
the extra mile is a trait which can only help the work of sales and
promotion. Read the circular here:-
https://www.steamshipmutual.com/Downloads/Circulars-London/L.281.pdf
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3. Nine Dash Line UNCLOS and When a Rock is a Rock
Many of our Readers are not always current on the law of the seas issues
which from time to time emerge under the UNCLOS regime and quite a few
of us were not exactly standing by for the arbitration on the boundary
issues arising in the South China Seas. Our favourite source for China-related
news is published by Bill Bishop and is called Sinocism. A recent edition
refers to a discussion of the landmark UNCLOS ruling by the arbitral
tribunal constituted under the Convention with Peter Dutton, Director
of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College.
A copy of the 501 page Award can be accessed here:-
https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2990927/PCA-Case-No-2013-19-The-South-China-Sea.pdf
The discussion is here:-
http://tinyurl.com/CSISimplication
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Henry.Hill@worldwidecurrencies.com…………………….+44 (0)20
3326 4514
4. Damage to Communications Cable in Norway by Prawn Fishermen
We cannot in truth recall our last case note from the Norway jurisdiction.
Aage Krogh of the IUNO Nordic Law firm notes the decision in Norges
Hålogaland Lagmannsrett’s judgment of 3 July 2015, case LH-2015-25686
which he reports in the forwarderlaw e-zine, a publication we always
read with great interest..
The Norwegian Court of Appeal ruled that a ship owner was liable for
damages to a sea cable due to gross negligence. However, the court eased
the amount of damages from € 140,457 to € 54,022 due to the
ship owner’s poor financial situation.
In 2009, a network company was granted permission to place a fiber-optic
sea cable for transmission of high-speed broadband. The cable was to
be placed in Norway between Nesna and Mo in Rana. The location of the
sea cable had been presented to the prawn boats in the surrounding area
and had been selected in consultation with the fishermen.
During the authorization process, 12 conditions were set down for the
placement of the cable. One condition stated that the contractor should
give notice to “Statens Kartverk Sjø” (The Norwegian
Mapping Authority) with the accurate position of the cable and send
a copy of this to “Kystverket Nordland” (The Norwegian Coastal
Administration). The conditions stated that the cable could not be put
into use before such notice was given.
Another term stated that the contractor – regardless of fault – was
obligated to compensate possible damages due to fishing gear being too
close to the cable. Compensation could however be omitted if the damages
were caused by gross negligence of the injured party.
On 22 November 2012, a prawn boat was at sea shrimping when the boat’s
net accidently got caught in the fiber-optic sea cable. In order to
disentangle from the sea cable the fisherman onboard the prawn boat
cut through the cable. Immediately after the cut the network company
registered that the connection was cut off.
Consequently, the network company took legal action against the fisherman
claiming full compensation for damages. The fisherman counterclaimed
and demanded compensation for the ruined net and the following intermission.
Read the note in full here:-
http://www.forwarderlaw.com/library/view.php?article_id=1055
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5. More Esperanto
Marine Consultant Rik F. van Hemmen writes from New Jersey:-
Re the item on Esperanto in Issue 659 of May 31st 2016:-
Through a different route I also came across the Esperanto article.
It is fun article on an important concept that never stopped fascinating
me (for a really unusual artificial language and an unexpected effect
see this link-
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/24/utopian-for-beginners
However, as a native Dutch speaker, I cannot be accused of bias in a
preference for English as the world Lingua Franca rather than to convert
to Esperanto.
Later on in the newsletter you refer to Cargo English. Interestingly
the use of a more basic and less confusing version of English was started
by Voice of America in WWII and was called Special English. It uses
a vocabulary of only 1500 words and avoids complex sentence structures.
Possibly the most efficient solution for international communications
may be Special English.
I wrote a blog about this a number of years ago which further plays
with the issue:-:
http://www.martinottaway.com/blog/rik-van-hemmen/maybe-solution-maritime-language-problem
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6. People and Places
The Nautical Institute is looking for a new CEO:-
http://tinyurl.com/NIceoVacancy
———-
Tara C. Hernandez has been appointed to the board of commissioners
at the Port of New Orleans.
———-
Bureau Veritas has appointed Nick Brown as Communications Director,
Marine & Offshore Division. He will take up the post from November
2nd, 2016, replacing Philippe Boisson, who retires after more than 25
years in the role.
———-
Denis Choumert, Chairman of the European Shippers’ Council (ESC),
has been appointed to The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA)
Board of Directors.
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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 for 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.
Our return to the subject of Esperanto led us to this "close but
no cigar" piece by Chris Hewer on the subject of Seaspeak which
appears in Issue 299 of April 17th, 2007:-
Speaking the language
AMERICAN humorist Robert Benchley once said that examining words was
one of the easiest methods of acquiring insanity. He wrote, "Just
examine a word you have written, and then call up Dr Jessup and tell
him to come and get you. Tell him to wear just what he has on."
One wonders what Benchley would have made of the maritime lexicon,
which in truth hasn’t changed very much in the 62 years since his death.
Take a word like ‘demurrage’, for instance. Please. Can there really
be such a word? And don’t mention ‘deadfreight’, which even the American
spell-checker doesn’t recognise.
Some people, especially all of them, believe that the maritime lexicon
was written and developed by lawyers, so that they could decide what
it meant, when it suited them. This is nonsense. Lawyers are not that
clever. The maritime language has developed through the thoughts and
exigencies of generations of seafarers, and any attempt to interfere
with it is not likely to succeed.
Some years ago, somebody invented a language called ‘Seaspeak’, but
its failure to catch on may lie in the pursuit of too much simplification.
For example, Clause 4 of the Asbatankvoy charter, which reads, "The
Charterer shall name the loading port or ports at least twenty-four
(24) hours prior to the Vessel’s readiness to sail from the last previous
port of discharge, or from bunkering port for the voyage, or upon signing
this Charter if the Vessel has already sailed," is rendered in
Seaspeak simply as, ‘Whatever’.
This is not to say that Seaspeak is dead. But it is, at best, resting.
Shipping, like other industries, should stick to its knitting. It has
its own language, and its own lawyers and arbitrators to sort out what
it means, if anything. Similarly, people should stick to their own industries.
It was always a bad idea for P&I clubs to insure architects, and
an even worse idea for anybody to allow European dentists to become
shipowners. At the height of the latter craze, a root canal specialist
in Odense, boasting to a charterer sitting in his surgery that he was
part-owner of a fleet of twenty tankers, was mortified to be told, "That’s
a lot of bottoms."
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Whaddayaknow
1. The longest one-syllable word in the English language is "screeched."
2. "Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters
"mt".
3. Almonds are members of the peach family.
4. The symbol on the "pound" key (#) is called an octothorpe.
5. The dot over the letter ‘i’ is called a tittle.
6. Ingrown toenails are hereditary.
7. The word "set" has more definitions than any other word
in the English language.
8. "Underground" is the only word in the English language
that begins and ends with the letters "und."
9. There are only four words in the English language which end in "-dous":…tremendous,
horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous.
10. The longest word in the English language, according to the Oxford
English Dictionary, is: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
11. The only other word with the same amount of letters is:pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconioses,
its plural.
12. The longest place-name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaunga
horonukupokaiwenuakitnatahu – a New Zealand hill.
13. Los Angeles’s full name is "El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la
Reina de losAngeles de Porciuncula" and can be abbreviated to 3.63%
of its size, "L.A."
14. An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
15. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
16. Alfred Hitchcock didn’t have a belly button. It was eliminated
when he was sewn up after surgery.
17. Telly Savalas and Louis Armstrong died on their birthdays.
18. Donald Duck’s middle name is Fauntleroy.
19. The muzzle of a lion is like a fingerprint – no two lions have
the same pattern of whiskers.
20. Steely Dan got their name from a sexual device depicted in the
book ‘The Naked Lunch’.
21. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
22. The Ramses brand condom is named after the great pharaoh Ramses
II, who fathered over 160 children.
23. There is a seven-letter word in the English language that contains
ten words without rearranging any of its letters, "therein":
the, there, he, in, rein, her, here, ere, therein, herein.
24. Dueling is legal in Paraguay as long as both parties are registered
blood donors.
25. John Larroquette of "Night Court" and "The John
Larroquette Show", was the narrator of "The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre."
26. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.( that is 1 second
longer than a blonde…..sorry dear).
27. It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
28. Cranberries are sorted for ripeness by bouncing them; a fully ripened
cranberry can be dribbled like a basketball.
29. The male gypsy moth can "smell" the virgin female gypsy
moth from 1.8 miles away. (But does he CALL? NO-O-O-O-O-O…)
30. The letters KGB stand for Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti.
31. ‘Stewardesses’ is the longest English word that is typed with only
the left hand.
32. To "testify" was based on men in the Roman court swearing
to a statement made by swearing on their testicles.
33. The combination "ough" can be pronounced in nine different
ways – the following sentence contains them all: "A rough-coated,
dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough;
after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."
34. The only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a
letter is uncopyrightable.
35. Facetious and abstemious contain all the vowels in the correct
order, as does arsenious, meaning "containing arsenic."
36. Emus and kangaroos cannot walk backwards, and are on the Australian
seal for that reason.
37. Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about
ten.
38. The word "Checkmate" in chess comes from the Persian
phrase"Shah Mat," which means "the king is dead."
39. The reason firehouses have circular stairways is from the days
of yore when the engines were pulled by horses. The horses were stabled
on the ground floor and figured out how to walk up straight staircases.
40. The first episode of "Joanie Loves Chachi" was the highest-rated
American program in the history of Korean television. "Chachi"
is Korean for "penis."
[Source: Paul Dixon]
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Arriving In Heaven
A man arrives at the gates of Heaven.
St. Peter asks, "Religion?"
"Methodist," the man says.
St. Peter looks down his list, and says, "Go to Room 24, but be
very quiet as you pass Room 8."
Another man arrives at the gates of Heaven.
"Religion?"
"Baptist."
"Go to Room 18, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8."
A third man arrives at the gates.
"Religion?"
"Jewish."
"Go to Room 11, but be very quiet as you pass Room 8."
The man says, "I can understand there being different rooms for
different religions, but why must we all be quiet when we pass Room
8?"
"Well, the Catholics are in Room 8," St. Peter replies, "and
they think they’re the only ones here."
[Source: JumboJoke.Com]
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