‘The onus of proving unseaworthiness is upon those who allege it. This is, of course, a sound doctrine; and it is none the less sound although the vessel break down or sink shortly after putting to sea. That is the principle of law. But the enunciation of that proposition does not impair or alter certain presumptions of fact, such presumptions, for instance, as those which arise from the age, the low classing or non-classing, the non-survey of ship or machinery, the refusal to insure, the laying-up, the admitted defects, and generally the poor and worsening record of the vessel, together with finally the break-down, say, of the machinery immediately, or almost immediately, on the ship putting to sea.’
Circumstances in which held ( rev. judgment of the First Division) that it lay with the owner to establish the seaworthiness of his vessel, the onus on the cargo owners who alleged unseaworthiness being displaced by the presumptions of fact.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Loreburn), Lord Macnaghten, Lord James of Hereford, and Lord Shaw
Citations:
[1911] UKHL 326, 48 SLR 326
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Transport
Updated: 25 April 2022; Ref: scu.619185
