Evergreen, the charterer of the 20,388TEU Ever Given, which ran aground in the Suez Canal last week has declared general average as the costs of the accident ramp up and the Egyptian authorities threaten legal action, including against the crew.
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]The declaration of general average will mean that shippers will need to pay a share of the costs of the incident before they can retrieve their cargo, though any cargo that has been lost as a result of the incident, such as perishable cargo, would attract compensation also.
Meanwhile, reports suggest that the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) may seek up to US$1 billion damages against those shown to be responsible for the incident, which blocked trade for six days.
Vessels entering the Suez Canal also effectively enter into a stringent contract agreement with the SCA that stipulates that the owners, operators or charterers of a vessel, “are responsible for any damage and consequential loss caused either directly or indirectly,” and they are wholly responsible unless proven otherwise.
Should the investigations now underway by the Panamanian registry, Bernard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), the SCA and insurers the UK P&I Club, show evidence of crew negligence or error, all the concerned parties, owners, charterers, shipmanagers and crew, could, in theory, be held responsible, depending on the outcome of the inquiries.
According to the terms of the contract, the responsibility can fall on any person or corporate body responsible for the ship at the time of the accident. As such the crew as well as the technical manager, BSM, owners Shoei Kisen Kaisha and charterers Evergreen could all be legally held responsible for the incident.
Eric Hsieh, president of Evergreen Marine Corp, today (2 April) denied that the Taiwan carrier had any responsibility for the grounding, claiming its responsibility was to keep cargo safe.
Container News reached out to an executive board member of the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), Abdulgani Serang, who believes that there is no need to jump the gun before the inquiries are completed.
Serang, who is also the general secretary of the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI), added, “There is no criminal liability involved, no death has occurred neither has there been any oil spillage. To the maximum, it may be a civil liability and the inquiry will take time.”
The ITF, NUSI and the Indian government have made it clear they will not tolerate any biased inquiry process. They are in constant touch with the 25-member Indian crew hailing from Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the rest from North India.
Sheuly Ghosh Nick Savvides
India Correspondent Managing Editor
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