The maritime law administered by Courts of Admiralty in England and Scotland is the same, and the doctrine of maritime lien for damages is part of that law.
In order that a maritime lien should attach to a ship for damages done to another, some act of navigation of the ship itself must either mediately or immediately be the cause of the damage. It is not sufficient that there is a wrongful act, on the part of the crew, unless the ship is itself the instrument by which the damage is caused.
The ss. ‘Dunlossit’ and the ss. ‘Easdale’ were moored alongside of an open quay in the Sound of Islay. The ‘Easdale’ lay outside of the ‘Dunlossit,’ and was moored to the quay by cables passing over the deck of the ‘Dunlossit.’ There was a gale of exceptional violence during the night, and the master of the ‘Dunlossit,’ in order to prevent danger to his vessel by contact with the ‘Easdale,’ cut the moorings of the ‘Easdale’ and put to sea, with the result that the ‘Easdale’ drifted on the rocks and was injured.
The owners of the ‘Easdale’ afterwards obtained decree for the amount of the damage against the owners of the ‘Dunlossit,’ on the ground that the act of the master of the ‘Dunlossit,’ in cutting the ‘Easdale’s’ moorings, was a wrongful act.
The ‘Dunlossit’ was sold judicially, and in a competition as to the proceeds between a mortgagee of the ‘Dunlossit’ and the owners of the ‘Easdale,’ who claimed a preference in respect of a maritime lien for the damages due to them, held that no maritime lien attached, the damage not having been caused in the course of navigation of the ship, but by an act of the crew before she had moved from the quay.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Halsbury), Lords Watson, Herschell, Morris, and Shand
Citations:
[1896] UKHL 93 – 1, 34 SLR 93 – 1, [1896] UKLawRpAC 55, (1897) AC 97
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Cited by:
Applied – The Eschersheim; The Jade HL 1976
The 1956 Act implemented as part of the domestic law the treaty obligations of the United Kingdom under the International Convention Relating to the Arrest of Seagoing Ships signed at Brussels on 10 May 1952 (the Arrest Convention).
Held: The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Transport
Updated: 11 July 2022; Ref: scu.634024