Larsen v Sylvester: HL 1908

A vessel was delayed by congestion for 9 days whilst waiting to load; she then loaded within the 84 hours allowed as laytime. The charterparty contained an exceptions clause which stated: ‘the parties hereto mutually exempt each other from all liability arising from floods . . and any other unavoidable accidents and hindrances of what kind soever beyond their control preventing or delaying the working, leading or shipping the said cargo occurring on or after the date of this charter until the actual completion of loading’.
Held: The ejusdem generis rule remains sound ‘both in law and as a matter of literary criticism’. However the inclusion of the words ‘of any other description’ at the end of a list precluded its application to this statute.

Citations:

[1908] AC 295, (1908) 96 LT 94

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedBOC Group Plc v Centeon Llc and Centeon Bio-Services Inc CA 29-Apr-1999
The court was asked whether a clause in a share sale agreement setting out the payment obligation worked to preclude the purchaser from exercising a right of set-off when the time comes to pay a later instalment of the price.
Held: The appeal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Transport

Updated: 01 May 2022; Ref: scu.244719