SMIT SALVAGE BV AND OTHERS V LUSTER MARITIME SA AND ANOTHER (THE "EVER GIVEN")

[2023] EWHC 697 (Admlty), King's Bench Division, Admiralty Court, Andrew Baker J, 30 March 2023

Salvage – Salvage contract – Intention to be bound – Salvage volunteer – International Convention on Salvage 1989

This litigation arose out of the grounding of the container vessel Ever Given in the Suez Canal on 23 March 2021. By the time the vessel was refloated on 29 March, the maritime salvage company Smit had a salvage team on board and two tugs assisting. The two defendants were the owners of the vessel. The claimants – Smit and its contractors – now sought salvage under the Salvage Convention 1989 or at common law. The defendants disputed that salvage services had been provided as alleged and further asserted that if salvage services had been rendered, they were performed under a pre-existing contract and not as volunteers. Once the vessel had been refloated, the parties had entered into a written jurisdiction agreement dated 25 June 2021 between the claimants, the defendants and their insurers. This was the question of whether a salvage agreement had been concluded. It was the defendants' case that communications had addressed all necessary terms and caused a salvage contract to be concluded on 26 March 2021. The claimants disputed that any contract had come into being and asserted that the parties had still been negotiating.