The Court of Appeal of England and Wales has rejected a bid by Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine to overturn a High Court ruling on a collision case.
The decision by a three-man panel upholds a High Court decision from March 2017 in which judge Nigel Teare found Evergreen to be 80% at fault for a February 2015 collision that did some $36m-worth of damage.
Intriguingly, we were told that this is the first appeal on liability heard by this court in a collision case since the Bow Spring v Manzanillo II .. in 2004
The ships were Evergreen's 7,024-teu Ever Smart (built 2006) and Transland Bulk Carriers' 153,000-dwt tanker Alexandra 1 (built 1997), both listed with protection and indemnity club Gard.
In the new ruling, court of appeals Justices Peter Gross, Kim Lewison and George Leggatt reject Evergreen's position that Teare had "double-counted" against the container carrier when he found that its vessel's excessive speed increased both the boxship's share of culpability for the accident and also the severity of the damage that took place.
"Intriguingly, we were told that this is the first appeal on liability heard by this court in a collision case since the Bow Spring v Manzanillo II .. in 2004," wrote Gross.
In the collision, the Evergreen containership suffered some $4m in damage. The laden suezmax, whose bow was split to beneath the waterline and whose condensate cargo had to be transshipped before a repair could be carried out, registered damages of over $32m.
The ships collided on a clear night just outside the entrance to the approach channel to Jebel Ali, where the tanker was waiting to receive a pilot who had just disembarked from the boxship. According to the UK's Maritime Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report, the containership's bridge was unaware of the tanker's position until alerted by port authorities seconds before the collision occurred.
Factors at play
An initial report by the MAIB found multiple factors caused the collision. The tanker was waiting "too near the channel entrance", and the containership did not keep a proper lookout.
But in last year's decision, Teare found that the suezmax was not liable under "crossing rules", which were not applicable to a situation in which "narrow channel rules" applied.
Evergreen Marine UK Ltd was represented by Ince & Co, while Clyde & Co represented the suezmax's registered owner, Nautical Challenge Ltd.
TradeWinds reported in July 2017 that the suezmax was the last ship in the fleet of Cyprus' Transland Bulk Carriers when it was sold for scrap under the name Ambassador at a reported $375 per ldt, or $8.3m. Earlier that year, crew had arrested the ship at Singapore over unpaid wage claims. Transland bought the ship from Arab Maritime Petroleum Transport Co for a reported $12.5m in January 2014.
An Evergreen spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
