Gray v Stead (The ‘Progress’) - Court of Appeal (Lord Bingham of Cornhill LCJ, and Otton and Robert Walker LJJ) - 20 July 1999

Tort - Employer’s liability - Fisherman falling overboard and drowning - Whether owner/skipper of vessel in breach of duty of care in failing to provide single chamber inflatable lifejacket for use by deceased and in failing to instruct deceased on importance of wearing it whenever he went on deck alone

This was an action for damages brought by the widow and administratrix of the estate of Mr Alan Gray who died on 27 July 1994 in the North Sea in the course of his employment by the defendant as a fisherman on board the motor fishing vessel Progress of which the defendant was owner and skipper. At all material times the Progress was manned solely by Mr Stead and Mr Gray. That morning the defendant was asleep in the accommodation whilst Mr Gray was on watch and thus principally in the wheelhouse in the course of a routine fishing expedition when he disappeared overside. His body was later recovered in the sea, and an inquest found that the cause of death was accidental drowning.