The Popi M [See LMLN 93 - 26 May 1983 for summary of case]

Marine insurance - Interest and Costs

After judgment had been delivered, the plaintiffs asked for interest on the sum awarded from 1 January 1979, a date selected as being a few weeks after the plaintiffs had submitted certain documents to the defendants for payment of the claim. Those documents contained a number of statements and the report of the plaintiffs’ then experts. The defendants opposed that application, and cited The Michael , at page 14E of the transcript relating to interest and costs, where Kerr J. referred to underwriters being under no commercial obligation to make any payment before a certain date. The defendants submitted that they were not commercially obliged to pay at the early date for which the plaintiffs contended because the plaintiffs’ case had changed very substantially over the years. Initially, the plaintiffs’ case was that the vessel had hit a submerged object which had caused a breach, not only of the engine room, but also of the after holds. It was not until late 1982 and early 1983 that the plaintiffs’ case took the form it did at trial.