Marabel Navigation Ltd v Unispeed Group Inc (The ‘Aurora’) - Before Thomas F Fox; Lloyd C Nelson; Stephen H Busch (Chair) - SMA No 3609

Time charter - Vessel ordered to ice-bound port - Propeller damaged at port - Whether charterers in breach of safe port warranty

The vessel Aurora was chartered under the NYPE form. The owners claimed for repairs to the vessel’s propeller incurred as a result of navigating in ice at the discharge port of Gros Cacouna in January 1997. The owners said that because of heavy ice coverage, Gros Cacouna was an unsafe port and that the charterers were accordingly in breach of the safe port warranty. The charterers contended that the port was safe, but that even if it was not, and even if the damage was found to have been incurred at Gros Cacouna, the damage was due to the vessel’s negligence, and such a supervening act of negligence by the owners would relieve the charterers of liability. The charterers relied on Time Charters 4th edition (1995) 192, 203; The Cepheus SMA No 2663 (1990); St Vincent Shipping Co Ltd v Bock, Godeffroy & Co Ltd (The ‘Helen Miller’) [1980] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 95.