Three ship pile-up lol20 Mar 2021 14:53
On 5 October 2020, J Teare handed down his last judgement as Admiralty Judge on a collision case, involving what could aptly be described as a three-ship pile up in the Suez Canal (1). Not only does the judgment shed some light on the legal causation approach in case of multiple collisions, it also raises some interesting points from the perspective of shipping lawyers and their clients.
In July 2018, a southbound convoy of eight vessels was proceeding through the Suez Canal. The vessel at the head of the convoy had an engine problem and was subsequently anchored. Thereafter, the vessels astern of her took steps to moor or prepared to moor.
The eighth and last vessel, Panamax Alexander, failed to moor and so collided with the seventh in the convoy, Sakizaya Kalon, which was at anchor. These two vessels then collided with Osios David, the sixth vessel of the convoy, which was also anchored and moored. The collisions generated claims totalling approximately US$18M, with none of the vessels accepting any liability for the collisions.
https://bdmlawllp.com/blog/latest-from-the-admiralty-court/