Voyage Charters

Timothy Young KC; Michael Ashcroft; Julian Cooke; Andrew Taylor; John Kimball; LeRoy Lambert; David Martowski; Michael Sturley

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Chapter 11 Owners' Responsibility Clause

2. Owners’ responsibility clause	21
Owners are to be responsible for loss of or damage to the goods	22
or for delay in delivery of the goods only in case the loss, damage	23
or delay has been caused by the improper or negligent stowage of	24
the goods (unless stowage performed by shippers/Charterers or their	25
stevedores or servants) or by personal want of due diligence on the	26
part of the Owners or their Manager to make the vessel in all respects	27
seaworthy and to secure that she is properly manned, equipped and	28
supplied or by the personal act or default of the Owners or their	29
Manager.	30
And the Owners are responsible for no loss or damage or delay	31
arising from any other cause whatsoever, even from the neglect or	32
default of the Captain or crew or some other person employed by	33
the Owners on board or ashore for whose acts they would, but for	34
this clause, be responsible, or from unseaworthiness of the vessel on	35
loading or commencement of the voyage or at any time whatsoever.	36
Damage caused by contact with or leakage, smell or evaporation	37
from other goods or by the inflammable or explosive nature or	38
insufficient package of other goods not to be considered as caused	39
by improper or negligent stowage, even if in fact so caused.	40

11.1 This clause appears principally to stipulate an acceptance of, rather than an exception from, liability, but in effect it provides owners with a wide-ranging exclusion of their legal liability for loss, damage or delay in delivery of the goods carried. In essence, owners are not liable for loss of or damage to or delay in delivery of the goods unless caused by:

(a) negligent or improper stowage when, under clause 5(a), the owners rather than the charterers/shippers perform the loading; or
(b) unseaworthiness due to the personal want of due diligence on the part of the individuals who control the management of the vessel, as distinct from the neglect or default of persons, such as employees or agents employed to perform the owners’ functions, for whose fault they would be liable on general principles; or
(c) some other cause due to the personal act or default of those same individuals.

In practice, however, parties often agree specific typed clauses, which have, or may have, an effect on the scope of these exceptions and this clause must, therefore, always be read carefully

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in the light of the charterparty as a whole. Probably the most frequently encountered and most important such additional clause involves the incorporation of the Hague Rules.

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