The Saga Cob The Product Star (No. 2)

The decisions of the Court of Appeal in The Saga Cob 1 and The Product Star (No. 2) 2 illustrate just how much harder it is for a shipowner to win an unsafe port case than it was before the watershed decision of the House of Lords in The Evia (No. 2).3 Not only was The Evia (No. 2) a very significant statement of the law, overruling first instance decisions of both Mustill, J., and Robert Goff, J., but what seems to have happened is a sea change in the approach of courts to unsafe port cases generally.

Charterers shall exercise due diligence to ensure that the vessel is only employed between and at safe ports … Charterers shall be under no liability … save for loss or damage caused by their failure to exercise due diligence.

The vessel was chartered in order to carry petroleum products from Assaba to oil terminals at the Ethiopian ports of Massawa and Djibouti. At all material times there was a civil war in progress in Ethiopia. During the currency of the charter, the vessel had called at Massawa about 20 times without any untoward events; but on 7 September 1988, while at anchor outside the port, she was attacked by the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (“EPLF”) in motor boats. They fired heavy machine guns and rocket grenades, wounding the master and causing substantial damage to the vessel. The owners claimed under cl. 3 of the charter for their losses resulting from the casualty. The charterers denied liability. The case raised two questions. First, was Massawa a safe port? Second, if not, did the charterers exercise due diligence to employ the vessel between safe ports?