Spiliada Maritime Corpn. v. Cansulex (The Spiliada) - Court of Appeal (Oliver and Neill L.JJ.) - 7 March 1985

Contract governed by English law - Whether leave should be given to serve out of jurisdiction - Relevance of time bar

The plaintiff owners of the Spiliada alleged a cause of action against the defendants in respect of damage caused to their vessel as a result of loading a cargo of sulphur at Vancouver, British Columbia, for carriage to India. Neither of the parties was connected with England. For the purposes of these proceedings it was accepted that there was a good arguable case that the defendant was a party to a bill of lading contract with the plaintiff governed by English law, but there was no arbitration clause in the bill of lading.