Seaworthiness

In Garnat Trading & Shipping (Singapore) Pte Ltd v Baominh Insurance Corporation [2010] EWHC 2578 (Comm) a floating dock was seriously damaged in a tropical storm. The insurers under the policy covering the voyage alleged both that the assured had failed to disclose material facts relating to the fitness of the floating dock to make the voyage and that the floating dock was unseaworthy. Much of the decision is taken up with factual evidence, but some points of principle do emerge.

Garnat Trading: the facts

The claimants were the purchasers of a floating dock which carried a floating workshop. The dock consisted of three decks, one of which was a pontoon deck, and the workshop was carried on the pontoon. The dock was to be transported from the sellers in Vladivostok, Russia to the assured in Vung Tau, Vietnam, and it was insured for that voyage under a voyage policy dated 12 June 2006 issued by the defendant insurers, a Vietnamese company, the sum insured being US$8,388,600.