Oceangas (Gibraltar) Ltd v Port of London Authority (The Cavendish)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 18 May 1993 |
| Date | 18 May 1993 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Admiralty) |
Queen's Bench Division
Before Mr Justice Clarke
Shipping - negligence of pilot - vicarious liability of harbour authority
A harbour authority's duty under the Pilotage Act 1987 was to provide a ship with a properly authorised pilot and it was not vicariously liable for damage caused to the ship as a result of the pilot's negligence.
Mr Justice Clarke so held in a reserved judgment in the Admiralty Court of the Queen's Bench Division, following the trial of a preliminary issue as to whether, on the basis of certain assumed facts, the defendants, the Port of London Authority (PLA), were liable in damages to the plaintiffs, Oceangas (Gibraltar) Ltd, for damage caused to their ship, The Cavendish, in a collision. The plaintiffs' action was dismissed following the determination of the preliminary issue.
Section 2 of the 1987 Act provides: "(3) Each competent harbour authority shall provide such pilotage services as it considers need to be provided…"
Mr Charles Macdonald, QC, for the plaintiffs; Mr Stephen Tomlinson, QC, for the PLA.
MR JUSTICE CLARKE said that at the time of the collision the plaintiffs' ship had been in the charge of a compulsory pilot employed by the PLA.
The plaintiffs submitted that the PLA was vicariously liable for the (assumed) negligence of the pilot in that, under the 1987 Act, the PLA owed a positive duty to provide pilotage services to the plaintiffs.
Further, the PLA was liable to the plaintiffs in contract, having contracted to supply pilotage services subject to a statutory or common law implied term that they would be performed with reasonable skill and care.
The plaintiffs argued that the 1987 Act had altered the law such that where loss or damage was caused by the negligence of a compulsory pilot employed by an authority such as the PLA the owners of the ship concerned were entitled to recover damages from that authority. It was conceded that if the claim had occurred before the 1987 Act had come into force it would have failed.
Vicarious liability in tort
The plaintiffs submitted that the effect of section 2 of the 1987 Act was to impose on the PLA the duty to pilot ships for which it provided a pilot.
The PLA submitted that, although the 1987 Act contained express duties which the earlier statutes had not, those duties were no different in substance from the duties were in fact assumed by pilotage authorities in earlier...
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...to a previous Act and accordingly Mr Ellis referred me to Ocean Gas (Gibraltar) Ltd v Port of London Authority ("the Cavendish") [1993] 2 Lloyds Rep 292 which confirmed that with respect to the employer of a licensed pilot the position relative to liability remained the same under the 1987 ......