For some inexplicable reason the number of reported Canadian maritime law judgments in 1982 was at least 25% lower than in 1981. Was it due to the decisions of the past acting as clear precedent for the present, or perhaps the sagacity of the lawyers wishing to avoid costs for their clients, or perhaps the sagging economy, or sunspots, or atomic testing, etc., etc.? The answer is unknown. Whatever the cause, the decisions for the most part provide a very useful and high calibre contribution to the understanding of Canadian and international maritime law.

A question of marine insurance and of jurisdiction arose in a third party action when a marine insurance company defendant called an owner of cargo in warranty into a suit in the Federal Court of Canada. The insurance company had issued an undertaking on behalf of the owner of the salved cargo, its presumed insured, and later learned in another action that the cargo owner was not in fact its insured.

The Federal Court Act 1970, at s. 22(2)(r) gives the Federal Court jurisdiction in respect to “any claim arising out of or in connection with a contract of marine insurance”. The Federal Trial Court and the Federal Court of Appeal took a very restrictive view of the words: “claim arising out of or in connection with …” and accordingly the third party action was disallowed. Lalande, D.J., dissenting, took a broader and much more realistic view.

The basic question of whether marine insurance can be of Federal jurisdiction was avoided by the majority but looked at by Lalande, D.J., who held that marine insurance fell under navigation and shipping or trade and commerce referring to ss. 91(10) and 91(2) of the B.N.A. Act 1867, now the Constitution Act 1867.