A New South Wales Supreme Court Judge has asked for the repeal, or modification, of an 85-year-old law under which the owners of a racing yacht lost through somebody else’s “gross negligence” were entitled to compensation of only A$279.06. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1894 has the effect of limiting liability for negligence in some accidents at sea when an employee is in charge of a vessel. In an accident in the port of Sydney in September, 1977, the motor launch Red Fin cut the 30-metre yacht, Four Devils, in two.

Mr Justice Sheppard said the limitation meant that despite the yacht being lost through some one else’s gross negligence, the owners would not be adequately compensated unless they had their own insurance. The Judge said that on the day of the accident Red Fin had the yacht on its starboard bow and motor vessels must give way to sail. A fire hose on the launch had dislodged and spilled water on the deck. An employee, who was alone on board, left the wheelhouse to fix it. Justice Sheppard said the employee was guilty of an act of utter recklessness in a busy harbour. However, he found the skipper of the yacht guilty of contributory negligence by his failure to take evasive action and failure to keep a proper look-out. He said that even had the crew of Four Devils been killed or seriously injured, liability would have been limited. This “extraordinary” situation was the result of s. 503 of the Act remaining in force.

A blank-back form of liner bill of lading has been produced by the Baltic and International Maritime Conference (BIMCO). BIMCO says that the complete documentation for all consignments on board a liner vessel or container ship may be frightening since the requirement of 10 or more copies of documents for each consignment is not unusual.

The difficulties have inspired many new technical devices for speeding up and facilitating documentation, thereby reducing paper volume and costs, but the practice of printing the carrier’s transport contract conditions on the back of the bill of lading has prevented in many cases the full use of costly copy-processing machines.

The front of the new blank-back BIMCO form contains all the data normally included in a traditional bill of lading and, in addition, there is a general reference to carrier’s standard conditions of carriage. The standard conditions are printed separately and copies are provided by the carrier to shippers, banks, underwriters and other interested parties. The note on the conditions of carriage includes specific reference to the Hague/Hague-Visby Rules since it was felt that otherwise the bill of lading might not satisfy the requirements of banks under documentary credits, or the requirements of underwriters. The possibility that the carrier might not have the conditions of carriage is covered by including a provision to the effect that the full conditions, exceptions and limitations of the “Conlinebill” liner bill of lading apply. BIMCO has also made available a standard blank-back form of liner booking note, which has been aligned with the layout of the new bill of lading form.