THE PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Easter has come and gone and so has Spring, even if only as a calendar date, it is barely April and events have been and are keeping up a fast pace.
The fourth annual SMA seminar on “Maritime Arbitration in New York under SMA Rules” in February had a majority of foreign attendees, including London, Nigeria, Venezuela and Mexico (we had two last minute cancellations – isn’t it ever so frustrating when business gets in the way). Two days of lively, interactive sessions were again superbly chaired by Professor Weiss and the SMA’s Austin Dooley, PhD.
Also in February, NYMAR put on a vivid afternoon lecture/discussion by simulating the COSCO BUSAN accident (allision with a bridge in San Francisco Bay and subsequent oil spill) as having taken place in New York harbor: How prepared would New York be? The US Coast Guard (USCG) representatives from the New York and New Jersey environmental agencies (EPA), spill responders, P&I Club, port authority, pilot association, Owner and Charterer’s representatives all made this frighteningly real, but demonstrating that New York would be prepared to deal with such a mess, literally speaking. Further details on both events are provided in this issue.
Then in March
the whole shipping world, at least so it seemed, came together in
What’s ahead: first of all, we are planning a fancy birthday party for ourselves. It is the SMA’s 45th anniversary and we aim to celebrate in style. The date is September 24 and the venue is the Union League Club. More details will follow. Then there is Maritime Americas Week 2008 in Miami in May (an annual event, but apparently this being the first), at which SMA members will participate in a Mock Arbitration in conjunction with Petrospot/IBIA’s Bunker Arbitration Experience, dealing with bunker related dispute issues.
We also hear
that the busy people running NYMAR are working on another afternoon seminar
sometime between now and June. Finally,
keep planning on attending ICMA XVII in
I encourage the membership to participate in these interesting events. Watch our website and stay tuned, but in the meantime enjoy the spring, if and when it actually shows up.
Klaus Mordhorst
THE HIDDEN TRUTH
by Chris Hewer
Roughly 95 per cent of people in the world claim that they have never told a lie. That figure is official: 95 per cent, mind. But it depends on your definition of a lie. Do you favour “gross falsification or misrepresentation of the facts, with constant repetition and embellishment to lend credibility?” Or do you prefer the old English maxim, “Liar, liar, pants on fire?”
American author Steven Covey once said, “When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it – immediately.” Easier said than done.
There is a fine line between telling
a lie and just giving voice to what you hope is the truth and then not knowing
when to stop. Take the former manager of the England football team (nobody else
has snapped him up yet), who last year stood on the touchline protecting his
lovingly created hairstyle under a huge umbrella while watching his side being
eliminated from the European Championships.
Real football managers don’t
stand under umbrellas. They wear cheesecutters, and stand out in the rain. Not surprisingly,
the
All sorts of people are susceptible to this foot-in-mouth syndrome. A barrister who should have known better once
told an ICMA meeting that it was not a good idea for
The only vaguely
comparable gaffe is that committed by a soldier in the British armed forces
who, some years ago, was court-martialed for coming back to barracks after
lights-out, climbing in through his hut window, and falling into bed in a
drunken stupor with a lit cigarette still in his mouth, thereby setting fire to
the bed and to the entire hut. His subsequent plea in court was, “Not guilty, m’lud. The bed was already on fire when I got into it.”
Obfuscation (let us call it that, for want of a better word, although heaven knows there must be thousands) has reached new heights of sophistication in the electronic age. At this very moment there is somebody trying to hawk an “enterprise-wide application for metadata removal and metadata management in law firms which uses sophisticated technologies to remove visible metadata and clean the hidden or difficult-to-reach file elements.”
Oh,
that old metadata chestnut, you are probably thinking. And you’d be right. For
those who did not know, metadata is data about data. The word
‘meta’ comes from the Greek, where it means ‘after’ or ‘beyond’. In
epistemology, the prefix ‘meta’ is used to mean ‘about’, which just happens to be a word that causes more trouble in
shipping disputes than any other, and is by no means exclusive to the Greeks.
But enough of that. The product on offer allows law firms
the luxury of not having to “worry about file formats leaving their electronic
walls.” That’s a relief. And it has an
“email integration capability to prevent the inadvertent release of
confidential information.” The product can “require users to clean all
documents sent outside the firm as part of a non-invasive automated workflow
process.” Tidy.
If
we are reading this right, lawyers are being offered an electronic means of, at
best, keeping secrets, and, at worst, covering up their mistakes. The days of
dumping a job lot of lever-arch files in the
Just the other day, an American lawyer sent out a press release telling the world what to look for when hiring an attorney. Among other things, this cautioned, “It is important to meet the lawyer, if possible, in the office. The client should see where the lawyer works. Observe the feel of the office to see if it will be a good fit. There are no secrets or surprises here.” And, oh yes, “Handshakes and a wink are not acceptable.”
This is all good advice, even though many of us
grew up believing – and still believe – that handshakes, at least, are
perfectly acceptable. A wink, meanwhile, is as good as a nod to a blind horse.
But as for ‘no secrets and surprises’, what about those deleted files? What
lies behind those electronic walls? What about the non-invasive automated
workflow process? What about the metadata?
Overall, if you need to choose a lawyer, you can do no better than choose a lucky one.
COGSA LIABILITY /
DG HARMONY
The following case summary appeared in the Blank Rome March 2008 newsletter.
Second Circuit Decision Affects COGSA Liability for Shipment of Dangerous Cargo
On
Under the holding of this case, a shipper will not be held strictly liable for damage caused by hazardous goods if both the shipper and the carrier had pre-shipment knowledge of the dangerous nature of the cargo, even if the carrier lacked information about the precise characteristics of the cargo and its hazards. Instead, in such a case the shipper’s liability will be determined on negligence principles. In particular, where the carrier alleges that the shipper failed adequately to warn the carrier about the characteristics of the particular shipment, the carrier must show (1) that the shipper had a duty to warn because the cargo presented dangers of which the carrier could not reasonably have been expected to be aware, (2) that the shipper failed to provide the adequate warning, and (3) that this failure caused the damage complained of.
Fact and Procedural History
On
Litigation ensued in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. All claims were resolved except the claims of the ship-owning and cargo interests against PPG. The ship-owning and cargo interests alleged that PPG was liable for the constructive total loss of the vessel based upon theories of general negligence, negligent failure to warn and strict liability. After a bench trial, the district court found PPG solely liable based upon the theories of strict liability and negligent failure to warn. PPG appealed to the Second Circuit.
The Second Circuit’s Decision on Appeal
The
Second Circuit reversed the judgment of the district court that PPG was
strictly liable pursuant to COGSA § 4(6), which provides that the shipper of
flammable, explosive, or dangerous cargo “shall be liable for all damages and
expenses directly or indirectly arising out of or resulting from such
shipment.” The district court’s finding
of strict liability was based on the Second Circuit’s holding in Senator Linie GMBH
& Co. KG v. Sunway Line, Inc., 291 F.3d 145 (2d Cir. 2002), where a
shipper was held strictly liable for damage caused by the spontaneous
combustion of hazardous goods being shipped from Korea to the United
States. The
Here, however, both the shipper and carrier knew that calhypo was dangerous. Relying on its prior decision in Contship Containerlines, Ltd. V. PPG Indus., Inc., 442 F.3d 74 (2d Cir. 2006), cert. denied, 127 S.Ct. 565 (2006), the Second Circuit held that a shipper cannot be held strictly liable for damage caused during the shipment of hazardous cargo in circumstances where the carrier was generally aware that the cargo’s dangerous nature requires careful handling or stowage, as the carrier was in this case, and it nevertheless exposes the cargo to conditions which could trigger a known danger, as the carrier did in this case. In such a case, liability must be determined under negligence principles and not strict liability principles.
The Second Circuit then turned to the district court’s holding that PPG was liable because it failed to adequately warn of the dangers posed in shipping the calhypo. The court affirmed the district court’s finding that PPG had a duty to warn and that PPG breached this duty by failing to adequately warn the carrier of the potential dangers posed by the specific manner in which PPG had packed the containers containing the calhypo, and it further affirmed the finding that the calhypo caused the explosion resulting in the constructive total loss of the vessel. The court nevertheless vacated the district court’s judgment based upon its failure to address whether the carrier would have stowed the cargo differently if PPG had provided an adequate warning and remanded the case to the district court with instructions to make findings on the issue of whether an adequate warning would have affected how the carrier stowed the calhypo.
Conclusion
Where the carrier is generally aware of the hazardous nature of cargo, even if it is not aware of the precise nature of the risk, and the carrier nevertheless exposes it to potentially dangerous conditions, it will not be able to rely on the strict liability provisions of COGSA but will be required to show that the shipper acted negligently with respect to the cargo and/or its obligation to warn the carrier of the specific nature of the cargo’s risks.
Reprinted
with the permission of Blank
tbelknap@blankrome.com or llambert@blankrome.com.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE
CITY OF
ANDREW
J. BARBERI
On
The owners and a crew member of the Dorothy
J, a tugboat that came to the aid of the Andrew J. Barberi
ferry after it crashed into the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, are entitled
under maritime law to a “salvage award” for the crew’s efforts in the immediate
aftermath of the crash, a
However, the claimants are not entitled to
an award for later keeping the Barberi stable within
its ferry slip, the judge added, as the company was required to do so under the
terms of a pre-existing contract with the city.
Eastern District Judge Edward R. Korman found in In the Matter of the Complaint of the City of New York,
03-cv-6049, that the tugboat’s actions in the half hour following the crash
satisfied the three elements of a “salvage service” under common law: there was
“marine peril,” the service was voluntary and the operation was a success. The
judge granted summary judgment in favor of Henry Marine Service, which owns the
Dorothy J, and its mate, Robert Seckers.
The Barberi
collided into a concrete maintenance pier on the afternoon of Oct. 15, 2003,
killing 11 people and injuring more than 70. One person was decapitated,
another lost both of his legs.
At the time of the crash, the Dorothy J was
docked at a nearby pier, awaiting orders regarding an oil barge.
Mr. Seckers
quickly maneuvered his boat into action. Initially, he attempted to secure a
line to the damaged end of the ferry in order to prevent it from drifting
towards the
With the tugboat’s help, the ferry returned
to the landing within half an hour.
The city then ordered the Dorothy J, under
the terms of its contract, to spend the next few days “pushing” the Barberi to keep it stable in its slip.
The following March, Henry Marine filed a
salvage claim against the city, seeking $6 million for its work between the
Wednesday of the accident and the following Saturday.
Mr. Seckers, the
ship’s mate, submitted his own salvage claim, as well as a separate tort claim,
seeking $2 million.
Henry Marine and Mr. Seckers
both moved for summary judgment on the issue of whether their actions
constituted a cognizable marine salvage claim. The city cross-moved for summary
judgment.
Yesterday afternoon, Judge Korman ruled largely in favor of the shipping company,
finding that the aid offered in the “immediate aftermath of the collision”
though not after the city ordered the tugboat to keep the Barberi
in its slip, entitled the claimants to a salvage award.
The decision offered an extensive history of
salvage law - the “right to be rewarded for saving a ship or its property from
peril” - which “pre-dates the Christian era by 900 years.”
As both sides agree that the Dorothy J’s
efforts were successful, the city only contested the first two elements of a
marine salvage claim: that the ship was in peril and that the service was
voluntarily rendered. The court found for the claimants on both counts.
“Many of the passengers and crew have
described the horrifying and chaotic scene aboard the Barberi
after the crash . . . There is also evidence that the City was concerned that
the Barberi was in danger of sinking even after the
Dorothy J pushed it back into the ferry slip, and, for this reason, directed
the Dorothy J. to continue pushing on the Barberi
instead of attaching lines or cables to her,” he wrote.
Judge Korman also
found the services to have been volunteered, as they did not fall within Henry
Marine’s pre-existing contract with the city for tugboat services.
The judge concluded, “Under these
circumstances, Henry Marine and Seckers are entitled
to a salvage award for the prompt and spontaneous efforts to aid the Barberi in the immediate aftermath of the collision.”
He also ruled that the two claimants, Henry
Marine and Mr. Seckers, were entitled to a single
award. How such an award would be divided, the judge added, was not a subject
of the present motion and cross-motion.
The judge did not determine the size of the
award. Although Henry Marine asked for $6 million, Judge Korman
said at a March 2007 hearing that he believed that the company perhaps deserved
a “bonus” of “not more than five figures” (NYLJ,
March 29, 2007).
Even though the judge limited the award to
the Dorothy J’s first 30 minutes of work, the attorney for the tugboat’s
owners, James E. Mercante of Rubin, Fiorella & Friedman, called the decision a “big win.”
“The time on the scene is not one of the
elements of the salvage award. The elements are the value of the vessel
rescued, the degree of peril it was in, the value of the equipment that the salvor put at risk, the lives saved and the skill employed
by the salvors,” Mr. Mercante
said.
“We made a motion for summary judgment to
get a ruling that Henry Marine’s service was salvage under admiralty law and
not towing, and Judge Korman agreed. [We got] exactly
what we were asking for.”
The size of the award will be determined at
a later proceeding, which was not specified in the judge’s decision.
James E. Ryan of Dougherty, Ryan, Giuffra, Zambito & Hession represented Mr. Seckers.
Lawrence S. Kahn, chief litigating assistant
for the city’s Law Department, who was involved in the case, said, “We’re
reviewing the decision.”
For anyone interested in accessing the
Court’s decision, please contact jmercante@rubinfiorella.com.
THE APPLICATION OF
THE COGSA TIME BAR IN
by Manuel R. Llorca
Partner, Llorca & Hahn
There have been a handful of arbitration decisions or dissents over the years which have held (or implied) that the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act (“COGSA”) one-year time bar provision is not, or should not be, applicable in an arbitration scenario, even where COGSA was incorporated by the parties into the contract of carriage. See, for example, In the Matter of the Arbitration between Elektra Shipping Co. Ltd. and Union Oil Trading (SMA #941, 1974), and In the Matter of the Arbitration between Vincent J. Shannon and Rice Growers Assoc. of Calif. (SMA #1830, 1983). The awards or dissents in question generally rely upon the holding of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Son Shipping Co. v De Fosse & Tanghe, 199 F.2d 687 (2d Cir. 1952). Son Shipping contained language to the effect that since the COGSA time bar provision referred to the bringing of “suit” within one year, it does not encompass “arbitrations.” The court stated:
It is true that the [arbitration] demand was not made within the one year limitation upon suits, contained in § 1303(6) of the above Act [the COGSA time-bar provision], but there is, nevertheless, no time bar because arbitration is not within the term ‘suit’ as used in that statute.
Despite the Son Shipping holding and the few awards which rely upon it, however, the great weight of arbitration precedent (persuasive albeit non-binding) indicates that the COGSA time bar routinely has been applied in charter party arbitrations involving cargo loss or damage, where COGSA is properly incorporated in the charter party or bill of lading governing the contract of carriage. See The S.S. Borgfjell (SMA #1144, 1977); The S.S. Prairie Grove (SMA #1020, 1976); The M/V Wind Endeavor (SMA #1533, 1981); The M/T King Cadmus (SMA #1881, 1983); and The Ocean (SMA #2576, 1989). Case law since Son Shipping, as discussed below, supports these awards.
In this writer’s opinion, the status of this issue is well illuminated by the decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Office of Supply, Government of the Republic of South Korea v New York Navigation Co., Inc., 469 F.2d 377 (2d Cir. 1972). The court there stated:
…we fail to find … manifest disregard of the law on the arbitrators’
part in concluding that OSROK’s claim was time-barred
by the one-year provision of COGSA, which was incorporated by reference in the agreement
of the parties and quoted in full on the reverse side of the bill of
lading. It was not unreasonable for the
arbitrators to conclude that its effect in the present case was to extinguish OSROK’s claim. See,
e.g., VM Inc. v St. Paul Fire & Marine
Ins. Co., 156 F. Supp. 879 (S.D.N.Y. 1957), rev’d
on other grounds, St. Paul Fire &
Marine Ins. Co. v United States Lines Co., 258 F.2d 374 (2d Cir. 1958),
cert. denied, 359 U.S. 910, 79 S. Ct. 587, 3L.Ed. 2d 574 (1959). Such an expressed contractual time-bar must
be distinguished from laches, which is essentially a
principle of equity. Czaplicki v Hoegh Silvercloud,
351
Our decision is not inconsistent with Son Shipping Co. v DeFosse & Tanghe, 199 F.2d 687 (2d Cir. 1952), so heavily relied upon by appellant, which held that COGSA’s one-year time-bar did not preclude the carrier from invoking arbitration. Having agreed upon arbitration as the procedure for resolution of their differences the parties should not be enjoined from utilizing that procedure, even though the demand for arbitration may be late, since the arbitrators may find upon the record before them in an appropriate case that the one-year time-bar does not govern the particular dispute, either because it was not incorporated in the bill of lading through the charter party or contract of affreightment, or because the provision was later waived or modified by the parties, or for some other reason. In short, where parties have agreed to settle differences by arbitration, they should not be denied access to that forum, regardless of COGSA’s one-year time-bar, provided they invoke arbitration within a reasonable time after their differences have arisen. Son Shipping Co., supra at 689. Thereafter it is for the arbitrators, not the court, to decide whether a claim is time-barred by their agreement.
This decision clearly moves away from the problematic language in Son Shipping which holds that COGSA, referring to “suits” in its time-bar provision, does not thereby encompass “arbitrations.” While choosing not to explicitly overturn Son Shipping, the Second Circuit chose not to cleave tightly to that precedent on this issue, since it held that arbitrators could indeed apply the COGSA time bar in the case before it, even though that time-bar provision of COGSA still referred to “suits.” The court chose to read Son Shipping narrowly, deciding that the important lesson Son Shipping teaches is that arbitration may be invoked despite the passage of the COGSA one-year time-bar period, but that once invoked the arbitrators are free to apply the COGSA limitation unless they find that there is an independent reason why it should not apply (waiver; modification of the COGSA provisions incorporated by reference; estoppel; etc.).
Thereafter, a number of arbitration panels explicitly chose to reject the notion that COGSA’s “suit” language did not encompass arbitrations as included fora, and implicitly or explicitly followed the reasoning of the Second Circuit’s Office of Supply case instead. See, e.g., SS ELEKTRA, SMA #941 (1974) (quoting from Office of Supply); SS PRAIRIE GROVE, SMA #1020 (1976); SS BJORGFJELL, SMA #1144 (1977) (criticizing Son Shipping); MV WIND ENDEAVOR, SMA #1533 (1981) (We are of the opinion that the time-bar provisions of COGSA must find application to this particular cargo case. We cannot deny Unimarine its right and immunities under COGSA through the U.S. Clause Paramount without trespassing on established law and custom of the industry, both in the U.S.A. and also under English law.); MT KING CADMUS, SMA #1881 (1983) (citing Son Shipping and Office of Supply); and the OCEAN, SMA #2576 (1989) (“In general, when COGSA is incorporated into a contract, courts and arbitrators bind the cargo claimants to bringing action within 12 months of delivery (or 12 months of scheduled delivery in case the cargo was never delivered).”).
The Federal courts in New York, after Office of Supply, have routinely “punted” time-bar issues to the arbitrators, and it is clear that a panel’s decision to recognize the parties’ intent to agree to the COGSA one-year time bar, manifested by incorporating COGSA into a charter party and/or bill of lading, will not be disturbed or treated as a “manifest disregard of the law.” See In the Matter of the Arbitration between World Carrier Corp. and Metal Transport Corp., 1979 U.S. Dist LEXIS 7846 (S.D.N.Y. 1979); Mitsubishi Corp. v. MV OINOUSSIAN, 1994 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2625 (S.D.N.Y. 1994); B.S. Sun Shipping Monrovia v. Citgo et al., 509 F. Supp. 2d 334 (S.D.N.Y. 2007).
It is hoped that this brief exposition will assist in filtering the slightly muddied waters surrounding the COGSA time bar and its application within the context of arbitration proceedings.
A COMMERCIAL MAN
by Mary Thomson
Kennedys, Hong Kong
This article discusses Hong Kong, English and
Introduction
Who qualifies as a “commercial man” when appointing an
arbitrator?
It is not uncommon, particularly in standard form
contracts in certain trades, to provide that an arbitrator must be a
“commercial man” - an expression that covers both men and women. What does it
take to be a “commercial man?” Can a
lawyer qualify as one, for instance?
The narrow view would suggest that lawyers cannot qualify.
The original intention behind the qualification was to exclude them from
arbitral panels because they were thought to be less practical, more pedantic
and more concerned with legal principles than with helping parties to resolve
their disputes in a timely and efficient manner. Consequently, the preference
has been to empanel experienced business people instead, as they are likely to
be more familiar with the trade than the average lawyer and to have a greater
knowledge of the background to (and the customs adopted in) the particular
industry.
Such a narrow approach is, however, now unwarranted. Should otherwise knowledgeable commercial men
be excluded from arbitral panels merely because they once practised
as lawyers or are still currently in practice?
Courts are rarely asked to resolve the issue of whether an
arbitrator qualifies as a commercial man.
The reality is that such challenges are commonly made at the
commencement of the arbitration proceeding and the challenged arbitrator then
usually resigns the appointment. Typically, the cases that do proceed to
litigation are those where parties challenge the arbitral award at the
enforcement stage.
The only
In the second English case, Pando Compania
Naviera SA v Filmo SAS, 2
the court held that a retired practising solicitor
who later became a full-time arbitrator – and who acted as director of several
shipping companies – was a commercial man as envisaged by the court in Rahcassi. In confirming
the Rahcassi construction of the term “commercial
man,” the court in Pando said that “like an elephant, they are more easily recognised than defined.”
What is important is the commercial experience of such individuals. The mere fact that a challenged arbitrator
previously practised as a lawyer cannot in itself
disqualify him as a commercial man, so long as he has subsequently qualified as
a commercial man.
In view of these two English authorities, the
Can a lawyer who is still in practice qualify as a
commercial man? The issue has not been reviewed by any English or Hong Kong
courts, but has been considered in the
The first important case was a decision of the Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit, WK Webster & Co v American President Lines Ltd.3 In this case, the arbitrator had practised as an admiralty lawyer early in his career. He then worked as a manager for several
companies involved in maritime cargo claims and insurance. He was a consultant
with a law firm at the time that he was appointed as an arbitrator, and, prior
to the making of the arbitral award, he had become a partner of that firm. American President Lines sought to vacate the
award, alleging that the arbitrator was not a commercial man.
The Court of Appeals rejected this argument, holding that
the arbitrator in question possessed substantial practical experience of the
commercial workings of the maritime industry.
Adopting the English decision in Pando, the court ruled that the
arbitrator’s experience must be taken as a whole – that is to say, both
experience acquired as a maritime lawyer and experience gained during his
non-legal career should be taken into account.
The fact that the arbitrator was a practising
lawyer at the time of the arbitration could not disqualify him from being a
commercial man.
A more recent authority, which relies on both the Webster
and Pando decisions, is US Ship Management Inc v Maersk
Line Ltd.4 This case centred on several
arbitrations between Maersk Line Ltd (Maersk) and US Shipping Management Inc (USSM), in which Maersk had appointed one Emery W Harper as arbitrator. The arbitration panel made an award in favour of Maersk. USSM challenged the decision, arguing that Mr Harper was not qualified to serve as an arbitrator
because he failed to meet the contractual requirement that each arbitrator be a
“commercial person knowledgeable in the operation and chartering of container
vessels and the operation of scheduled container services.”
Mr Harper had been a maritime
lawyer for more than 30 years. During
that time, he not only acquired a formidable amount of knowledge about the
container vessel industry, but also had spent many after-work hours participating
in discussions with container service companies and executives of his clients.
After he ceased practice as a lawyer, Mr Harper
established his own consultancy firm, which managed maritime commercial
ventures. His work consisted of legal
and non-legal matters, including the development of business opportunities.
The US District Court for the Southern District of New
York ruled that Mr Harper did indeed qualify as a
commercial man. The Court of Appeals for
the Second Circuit agreed.
In the light of the Webster and US Ship Management
decisions, therefore, it is clear that practising
lawyers can qualify as commercial men, provided that they possess substantial
(and relevant) practical commercial knowledge and experience.
Will the
While the
Relevant time
for qualification
On a final note, the relevant time for assessing whether
someone qualifies as a commercial man is the date of their appointment. This is made clear by the English decision in
Pan Atlantic Group Inc v Hassneh Insurance Co of
Israel Ltd.5 Technically
speaking, the case was concerned with a different qualification requirement -
namely, that the arbitrator must be a “disinterested executive official of
insurance or reinsurance companies.” However,
as a matter of construction, the decision equally applies to arbitration
clauses requiring arbitrators to be commercial men. The practical effect of the Pan Atlantic
decision is that an appointed arbitrator will qualify as a commercial man if,
at the date of appointment, he possesses the necessary substantial commercial
and practical experience.
Summary
In view of the English and US authorities, it is submitted
that the position may be summarised as follows.
·
A lawyer will not qualify as a commercial man if he has only a
general familiarity with the industry, acquired solely through practising law, but no practical commercial experience
gained from working in the sector itself.
·
A lawyer who has substantial commercial experience, which has been
acquired after retiring from legal practice, will qualify as a commercial man.
·
A lawyer will also qualify as a commercial man if he has acquired
substantial commercial experience before becoming a full-time practising
lawyer.
The focus is not, therefore, on whether an individual is
(or was) a practising lawyer but, rather, is on:
Moreover, a person retains the status of a commercial man,
whether or not they have retired from commerce or are still engaged in it.
__________
1 HCCL 99/1986, 9 January 1987, unreported.
2 [1975] QB 742.
3 1994
4 2002
5 [1992] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 120
Note: This article appeared in the Asian Dispute Review,
October 2007 at pp.123-124. The author
also practices as an arbitrator and is an accredited mediator. She can be reached at m.thomson@kennedys.com.hk.
Managing
Director
Hanjin Shipping
It’s almost as if in today’s world of intense competition, microscopic public scrutiny and pervasive government involvement at multiple levels that many people believe ocean carriers can stride the earth like 19th century robber barons abusing employees, customers and the environment.
Well, we can’t and we don’t.
Environmentally
cleaner ocean-going cargo vessels are a critically important topic for the
people of the
A word of warning….while I have many years of experience in the ocean transportation business, I am neither an environmental scientist nor an expert. I am a simple transportation executive charged with moving goods from point A to point B. But I am also someone who cares deeply about the future of my company, the industry and the environment. I have two children, and like all parents, I would like to do my part to ensure that my children and grandchildren have clean air and water in the future in addition to a productive and sustainable economy.
Also, as we discuss this critical issue I believe it is important to keep in mind a sticky, inconvenient topic that seldom gets any air time in the debate. In his second best seller entitled “Collapse,” Jared Diamond raises the issue of choices societies have to make and how these choices can lead to sustainable prosperity or to societal collapse. Without getting too dramatic, these are the real choices we face. Can we find a way to support sustainable economic growth or not? Can we find a way to continue growth and improvement in economic activity and quality of life while protecting the environment or are we at the point of a Hobson’s choice that no one wants to make between economic growth and a clean environment? I think we still have real choices.
I’d like to focus on four questions. The answers to these questions are fundamental to reaching a successful conclusion to the debate and a cleaner environment. The 4 questions are:
What is the ocean carrier position on the environment? Do carriers have horns and hooves?
The last time I checked I didn’t have horns and hooves.
Ocean carriers want and need to be good global corporate citizens. Part of being good corporate citizens is being aware of the environmental issues we face, establishing corporate standards and policies that are enforced and abiding by established environmental regulations.
Most, if not all, leading containerized ocean carriers hold these views. We understand that we are part of the problem. However, we are also part of the solution. We are an active part of the solution now and we intend to continue to be part of the solution. We strongly believe that industry, government and communities can work together and contribute to a cleaner environment while continuing to meet our customers’ and the nation’s transportation needs.
In five words….yes, of course we do.
We
understand the need for environmental regulations and support regulation. However, we do have a problem when
regulations are set by multiple, overlapping jurisdictions making compliance
much more onerous and problematic without achieving the best or desired result.
Some current proposals in southern
Most large containerized ocean carriers call in many different countries, ports and facilities around the globe. And these carriers’ fleets of vessels will be shifted around the globe in different rotations to meet changing market requirements. Having each of these countries, let alone multiple jurisdictions within each country, set individual and inconsistent environmental regulations would amount to a bewildering patchwork quilt of regulations that would not only be economically and probably technically disastrous, but also would not meet stated environmental objectives.
The tried and true approaches of setting emission standards and then allowing the manufacturers adequate time to develop the most cost-effective technologies need to be applied to the international movement of cargo.
The more recent approach to environmental regulation of transportation activity of selecting specific technologies and imposing these requirements on the end-user of the technology is unlikely to be successful in meeting the stated goals of regulators or the population in general.
We need to re-think ocean transportation environmental regulation and establish regulations on the following basis:
· We need globally accepted standards established via the US EPA consistent with the Clean Air Act and through the International Maritime Organization.
· We need to focus on standards and results and not on specific technologies that may not be suitable for the various types of vessels and operations that exist worldwide.
· The timing of implementation of regulations for a global industry where assets are shifted frequently needs adequate advance notice to ensure compliance.
· We need to base regulations and standards on facts and data and not on political expediency.
· We need regulations and standards that are developed via an open and frank dialog among industry participants, governmental agencies and recognized interest groups. We need to talk to each other rather than to shout past one another.
· Finally, we need an atmosphere where new technologies and best practices to reduce emissions are encouraged – unlike some of the current proposals that are driven by specific or even pet technologies.