War Risks Insurance Act 1939
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1939 c. 57 |
| Year | 1939 |
War Risks Insurance Act, 1939.
(2 & 3 Geo. 6.) CHAPTER 57.
An Act to make provision for authorising the Board of Trade, in the event of war and in other circumstances, to undertake the insurance of ships and other goods; for the payment by the Board of Trade, in time of war, of compensation in respect of goods lost or damaged in transit; for requiring persons to insure goods against certain risks in time of war; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[4th August 1939]
Be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I.
Insurance of Ships and Cargoes.
1 Agreements for re-insurance by Board of Trade of certain risks in respect of ships and cargoes.
(1) The Board of Trade, if they are of opinion that it is expedient so to do for the purpose of securing that ships are not laid up and that commerce is not interrupted by reason of lack of insurance facilities, may, with the approval of the Treasury, enter into agreements with any persons—
(a ) for the re-insurance by the Board of any King's enemy risks against which a British ship is for the time being insured; and
(b ) for the re-insurance by the Board of any King's enemy risks against which the cargo carried in a ship or aircraft is for the time being insured.
In relation to any period during which His Majesty is at war, the preceding provisions of this subsection shall have effect as if for any reference therein to King's enemy risks there were substituted a reference to war risks.
(2) A copy of every agreement made in pursuance of this section shall, as soon as may be after the agreement is made, be laid before each House of Parliament; and if either House, within the period of fourteen days beginning with the day on which a copy of such an agreement is laid before it, resolves that the agreement he annulled, the agreement shall thereupon become void except in so far as it confers rights or imposes obligations in respect of things previously done or omitted to be done, without prejudice, however, to the making of a new agreement.
In reckoning for the purposes of this subsection any such period of fourteen days as aforesaid, no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is dissolved or prorogued, or during which both Houses are adjourned for more than four days.
(3) Any reference in this section to a British ship shall be construed as including a reference to any machinery, tackle, or furniture of a British ship, and to any goods on board of a British ship, not being cargo carried therein; and in this section the expressions ‘King's enemy risks’ and ‘war risks’ mean, in relation to any agreement, King's enemy risks and war risks respectively as defined for the purposes of that agreement.
(4) This section shall be deemed to have come into operation on the twentieth day of February nineteen hundred and thirty-nine.
2 Insurance by Board of Trade of ships and cargoes.
(1) The Board of Trade may, with the approval of the Treasury, carry on business for all or any of the following purposes, that is to say:—
(a ) the insurance of British ships by the Board against war risks or King's enemy risks, at any time when it appears to the Board that reasonable and adequate facilities for the insurance of British ships against such risks are not available;
(b ) the insurance by the Board, during the continuance of any war in which His Majesty may be engaged, of British ships and of foreign ships not being ships used in the service of a Power at war with His Majesty;
(c ) the insurance by the Board of cargoes carried in ships or aircraft against war risks or King's enemy risks, at any time when it appears to the Board that reasonable and adequate facilities for the insurance of such cargoes against such risks are not available;
(d ) the insurance by the Board, during the continuance of any such war, of cargoes carried in ships or aircraft not being ships or aircraft used in the service of a Power at war with His Majesty; and
(e ) the insurance by the Board, during the continuance of any such war,—
(i) of goods consigned for carriage by sea or by air from a place outside any one of the countries to which this paragraph applies to a place in that country, while the goods are in transit between the ship or aircraft and their destination; and
(ii) of goods consigned for carriage by sea or by air from a place in any one of the countries to which this paragraph applies to a place outside that country, while the goods are in transit between the premises from which they are consigned and the ship or aircraft.
The countries to which paragraph (e ) of this subsection applies are the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and any of the Channel Islands.
(2) Any reference in paragraphs (a ) and (b ) of subsection (1) of this section to British ships or foreign ships shall be construed as including a reference to any machinery, tackle or furniture of such ships, and to any goods on board of such ships, not being cargo carried therein; and in paragraph (e ) of that subsection the expression ‘the ship or aircraft’, in relation to goods consigned for carriage by sea or by air to or from a country to which that paragraph applies, does not include any vessel into which the goods are discharged at any port or place in that country far the purpose of being landed at that port or place, or from which the goods are discharged for the purpose of being carried by sea or by air from that country, as the case may be.
3 Transitional provision for compensation in respect of goods in transit after discharge or before shipment.
(1) Where any person proves with respect to any goods—
(a ) that the goods have been lost or damaged in consequence of King's enemy risks; and
(b ) that the goods, having been consigned for carriage by sea or by air from a place outside any one of the countries to which this paragraph applies to a place in that country,—
(ii) were so lost or damaged as aforesaid within the appropriate period, while in transit between the ship or aircraft and their destination,
or, having been consigned for carriage by sea or by air from a place in any one of the countries to which this paragraph applies to a place outside that country before the expiration of the said period of seven days, were so lost or damaged as aforesaid while in transit between the premises from which they were consigned and the ship or aircraft; and
(c ) that he and his agents exercised all due diligence for securing that no delay occurred while the goods were in such transit as aforesaid; and
(d ) that at the time when the loss or damage occurred the property in the goods was vested in him;
the Board of Trade shall pay to him, by way of compensation for that loss or damage, an amount equal to the value of the goods ascertained in accordance with such rules as may be made by the Board of Trade, or, as the case may be, the amount by which the value of the goods so ascertained was diminished by reason of the damage.
(2) Where, at the time when the loss or damage for which compensation in respect of any goods has become payable under this section occurred, the goods were subject to any mortgage, charge or other similar obligation, the amount of the compensation shall be deemed to be comprised in that mortgage, charge or other obligation.
(3) The countries to which paragraph (b ) of subsection (1) of this section applies are the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and any of the Channel Islands.
(4) In this section—
(a ) the expression ‘the ship or aircraft’, in relation to goods consigned for carriage by sea or by air to or from a country to which paragraph (b ) of subsection (1) of this section applies, does not include any vessel into which the goods are discharged at any pork or place in that country for the purpose of being landed at that port or place, or from which the goods are discharged for the purpose of being carried by sea or by air from that country, as the case may be; and
(b ) the expression ‘the appropriate period’ means—
(i) in a case where the destination of the goods is within the port or place at which they were discharged from the ship or aircraft, the period of fifteen days beginning with the day on which they were so discharged; or
(ii) in a case where the destination of the goods is outside the said port or place, the period of thirty days beginning with the day on which they were so discharged.
4 Liabilities of re-insurer in the event of insurer's insolvency.
4. Where any sum becomes payable to any person (hereafter in this section referred to as ‘the insurer’) in respect of any loss or damage arising from a risk against which the insurer has, either originally or by way of re-insurance, insured another person (hereafter in this section referred to as ‘the assured’) and either—
To continue reading
Request your trial