IMPERIAL SMELTING CORPORATION, LTD. v. JOSEPH CONSTANTINE STEAMSHIP LINE, LTD.

(1940) 67 Ll.L.Rep. 245

COURT OF APPEAL.

Before Sir Wilfrid Greene (Master of the Rolls), Lord Justice Scott and Lord Justice Goddard.

Charter-party - Frustration - Impossibility of performance - Explosion on board - Charter of vessel Kingswood to load cargo at Port Pirie-Arrival in Port Pirie Roads-Violent explosion in auxiliary boiler before vessel became "an arrived ship" - Agreement between parties that delay caused by resultant damage was such as to frustrate commercial object of adventure - Claim by charterers for damages for failure to load -Plea by shipowners that contract was frustrated and that they were thereby relieved from liability - "Accidents of navigation" excepted by charter-party - Arbitration - Finding of arbitrator that "the explosion was one of an unprecedented character and no sequence of events which was other than improbable was suggested as capable of having given rise to it"-Award that charterers were entitled to recover-Case stated-Onus of proof of impossibility of performance - Australian Sea Carriage of Goods Act, 1924, Schedule, Art. IV (2) (a) and (p).