The Vasso - Q.B.D. (Com.Ct.) (Lloyd J.) - 29 March 1983

Whether arbitrator has power to order inspection of property

On 6 January 1983 the plaintiff’s vessel Vasso caught fire in the course of a voyage from Valencia to Kuwait. Salvage services were rendered under a Lloyd’s Open Form and in due course an arbitrator was appointed. The cargo owners applied to the arbitrator for an order that they might be permitted to place two surveyors on board the vessel, a fire expert and a hull surveyor. The arbitrator made the order but the shipowners were dissatisfied with it and the matter came before Lloyd J. as a preliminary point of law with the arbitrator’s consent under section 2 of the Arbitration Act 1979. The question was whether an arbitrator had power to make an order for inspection of property.