Case 3 Carrying Equipment

A large container ship was involved in a collision, as a result of which many containers were lost overboard and a large number of others damaged. Some of the containers belonged to the owner of the ship, while others were owned or operated by other shipping lines and were being carried under slot-charter or similar arrangements, but were mostly insured by the Club. In addition, a number of containers had been despatched by transport operator members of the Club, acting as NVOCs.

Faced with a number of members with insured interests on board, in the initial stages the Club appointed a single surveyor to act impartially on behalf of them all. He was instructed to attend the discharge of the containers, provide a definitive list and make an initial assessment of the extent of damage to each container. Subsequently and because of the complex nature of the liabilities (not unusual with this type of incident) the various aspects of the claim were dealt with by different teams, with strict segregation between them. One team dealt with the containers belonging to the ship's operator, while another handled the claims from the other shipping lines. A third group dealt with the claims from the NVOCs.