Mariola Marine Corporation v Lloyd's Register of Shipping (The Morning Watch)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 15 February 1990 |
| Date | 15 February 1990 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court) |
Queen's Bench Division
Before Mr Justice Phillips
Shipping - classification survey - duty of care
Lloyd's Register of Shipping did not owe a duty of care to future purchasers of a vessel who were likely to rely on the results of a classification survey conducted before the purchase.
There was insufficient proximity between plaintiff and defendant to give rise to a duty of care to avoid causing economic loss by negligent misstatement.
Mr Justice Phillips so held in the Queen's Bench Division in dismissing a claim for damages by Mariola Marine Corporation, the plaintiff yacht charter company, for loss caused by an allegedly negligent classification survey.
Miss Belinda Bucknall, QC and Mr Luke Parsons for Mariola; Mr Julian Flaux for Lloyd's.
MR JUSTICE PHILLIPS said the plaintiff was a US company which had purchased the Morning Watch, an 80ft steel-hulled motor yacht, in March 1985. The yacht had just been surveyed by a Lloyd's surveyor and had effectively been given a clean bill of health and classed 100A1.
The plaintiff contended that the Morning Watch in fact had serious defects which rendered her unseaworthy and which should have been detected had the survey been properly conducted.
His Lordship said that the plaintiff had established that it was reasonably foreseeable to Lloyd's that Mariola might rely on the survey result. But that was not in itself enough to establish a duty of care in a case of economic loss.
There must also be a sufficient degree of proximity between plaintiff and defendant and it must be just and reasonable to impose on the defendant a duty of care to the plaintiff.
There was no universal test to determine whether the necessary proximity existed. Under Lloyd's system of classification, parties other than the owners of classified vessels were expected to rely on the fact that a vessel was maintained in a class as providing an assurance that the vessel was maintained in good condition.
But the primary purpose of the system was to enhance the safety of life and property at sea, rather than to protect the economic interests of those involved in shipping.
In so far as negligent classification was liable to harm economic...
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