MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co SA v Stolt Tank Containers BV and Others (The MSC Flaminia) - [2022] EWHC 2746 (Admlty), King's Bench Division, Admiralty Court (Andrew Baker J) - 2 November 2022

Admiralty - Limitation of liability - Tonnage limitation - Meaning of shipowner - Charterer - Limitation fund - Consequential losses - Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976 as amended, article 2

On 14 July 2012 the vessel MSC Flaminia, on a voyage from Charleston, South Carolina, to Antwerp, was damaged by a huge explosion while in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The cause of the explosion was auto-polymerisation of the contents of one or more of three tank containers - containing 80 per cent divinylbenzene (DVB) - loaded at New Orleans. Hundreds of containers were damaged or destroyed, and some of the crew lost their lives. The vessel was taken to Wilhelmshaven for the remaining cargo to be discharged.