Oxford Paper Co. v. the Nidarholm
Headline: Court limits shipowner liability for deck cargo loss, holding charterer responsible for failing to build secure cribbing and affirming the lower court’s split-loss result.
Holding: The Court held the vessel was not fully liable for the deck cargo loss because the charterer built and supplied defective cribbing, so the charterer must bear part of the loss while the ship’s warranty did not cover that cribbing.
- Charterers who build deck cribbing risk paying for failures.
- Shipowners are not liable for charterer-supplied cribbing not required by the charter.
Summary
Background
A company that chartered the steamship to carry pulpwood piled extra logs on the deck and built a wooden crib of long stanchions lashed with wire to hold the load. The charter party gave the charterer the vessel’s holds and decks and said the charterer would load, stow, and trim the cargo under the captain’s supervision. Soon after departure the ship listed, several stanchions broke, and the deck load spilled into the sea. The district court found the ship topheavy and unseaworthy and held the ship responsible, while the court of appeals split the loss between the parties.
Reasoning
The Court asked whether the ship must cover a loss caused in part by the charterer’s failure to make the deck load secure. The Court recognized that the shipowner warrants seaworthiness, but that warranty covers the ship and equipment the vessel must supply under the charter. The cribbing was built by the charterer for its own convenience and was not equipment the ship was required to provide. The record did not show the master knew the cribbing was defective. Because the stanchions’ collapse was a contributing cause and the defective cribbing was the charterer’s construction, the Court held the ship was not fully liable for the loss.
Real world impact
The decision confirms that charterers who create additional structures to carry extra deck cargo generally bear responsibility if those structures fail. Shipowners are not required to guarantee charterer-built cribbing and need not absorb all losses from such defects. The lower court’s split-loss result was affirmed.
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