ITIC’s comprehensive professional indemnity insurance is tailored to suit the specific needs of marine professionals
such as:
• Marine consultants
• Marine surveyors
• Naval architects
• New building supervisors
• Ship agents
• Ship brokers
• Ship managers
• Yacht brokers
• Yacht managers
To demonstrate potential liabilities of marine professionals, the following claims scenarios may be helpful.
Ship Manager
A ship manager in South East Asia ordered bunkers to be supplied at Chittagong on behalf of one of its shipowner clients. Unfortunately, the shipowner did not pay the bunker costs of approximately US$60,000. The bunker trader then pursued the ship manager directly on the premise that the manager, and not the shipowner, had contracted with him.
When reviewing the exchange of emails between the manager and the bunker supplier, it was obvious that the manager had failed to notify the bunker supplier of the identity of the principal and had not clearly stated that the invoice should be made out to the owner of the ship care of the manager. On legal advice that the ship manager's defence was not strong, the Club settled the bunker trader's bill in full.
Ship Broker
A broker in northern Europe was appointed by the owner to exclusively market a tanker. A voyage charterparty was arranged for the carriage of 20,000 metric tonnes of vegetable oil from the US Gulf to the Mediterranean.
Approximately one week prior to the intended loading date it was realised that the tanker was not suitable, having only a single skin hull. Under the USA OPA rules a single skin tanker was not allowed to lift persistent oils after 1st January 2004.
The charterer eventually had to charter two other ships at much higher rates to fulfil their obligations and claimed a loss of US$166,000 from the owner. The claim was overstated and was eventually settled for US$70,000, which the owner claimed from his broker.
