MarInsLaw

The Court of Appeal recently confirmed the Commercial Court decision in the West Tankers case, a decision which may strengthen commercial insurers’ position defending claims by highlighting the power of arbitrators to make ‘negative declarations’ and confirming the ability to enforce declarations in the form of a Court judgment.  Read more...

The marine market will welcome this month’s important decision of the Supreme Court in  The Cendor MOPU 1 , which has unanimously confirmed that the inherent vice defence is limited to situations where the loss has been proximately caused by something internal to the insured subject matter and not as a consequence of the operation of some external fortuity. The Court very helpfully clarified the complex and at times difficult relationship between the insured risk of perils of the seas and the excluded peril of inherent vice, when it comes to establishing a proximate cause of a loss. As a result, the market should now see fewer coverage disputes on inherent vice issues; and although some difficulties may still remain those disputes which do arise should now be easier to resolve. Read more...

The European Union (Insurance Of Shipowners For Maritime Claims) Regulations 2011 (SI 686/2011) (the “Regulations”) have been passed to transpose Directive 2009/20/EC (the “Directive”) into Irish law. The deadline for transposition was 1 January 2012 and the Regulations came into operation on 1 January 2012 to give effect to the Directive. Increased regulation relating to maritime insurance - Lexology