Marine Insurance - Unseaworthiness

The Sea Star

In order to succeed in their defence under section 39(5), the underwriters had to persuade the court of three things: (1) that the vessel was unseaworthy when it was sent to sea; (2) that the unseaworthiness was causative of the loss and (3) that the assured was privy to sending the ship to sea in an unseaworthy condition (ie, that the assured had the requisite degree of knowledge of the unseaworthiness that gave rise to the loss, as decided in Thomas v Tyne and Wear SS Freight Insurance Association [1917] 1 KB 938).