General average

This article is about the legal principle of maritime law. For Generalised average in Maths, see Generalized mean. For the carom billiards term, see Glossary of cue sports terms#general average.
The owners of Hanjin Osaka, seen here transiting the Panama Canal in 2008, declared general average following an explosion in the ship's engine room on 8 January 2012.[1]

The law of general average is a legal principle of maritime law according to which all parties in a sea venture proportionally share any losses resulting from a voluntary sacrifice of part of the ship or cargo to save the whole in an emergency. In the exigencies of hazards faced at sea, crew members often have precious little time in which to determine precisely whose cargo they are jettisoning. Thus, to avoid quarrelling that could waste valuable time, there arose the equitable practice whereby all the merchants whose cargo landed safely would be called on to contribute a portion, based upon a share or percentage, to the merchant or merchants whose goods had been tossed overboard to avert imminent peril. While general average traces its origins in ancient maritime law, still it remains part of the admiralty law of most countries.

The first codification of general average was the York Antwerp Rules[2] of 1890. American companies accepted it in 1949. General average requires three elements which are clearly stated by Mr. Justice Grier in Barnard v. Adams:

"1st. A common danger: a danger in which vessel, cargo and crew all participate; a danger imminent and apparently 'inevitable,' except by voluntarily incurring the loss of a portion of the whole to save the remainder."
"2nd. There must be a voluntary jettison, jactus, or casting away, of some portion of the joint concern for the purpose of avoiding this imminent peril, periculi imminentis evitandi causa, or, in other words, a transfer of the peril from the whole to a particular portion of the whole."
"3rd. This attempt to avoid the imminent common peril must be successful".

See also

Richard Cornah, Julian Cooke (2007). "Lowndes & Rudolf: The Law of General Average and the York-Antwerp Rules" (13th Edition)

Rose, Francis D. (2005). General Average : Law & Practice 2nd Edition

References

  1. ↑ "General Average Declared After Engine Explosion" (PDF), Western Overseas Corporation Dispatch 2 (2), March 2012, p. 1, retrieved 2012-06-12
  2. ↑ http://www.usaverageadjusters.org/YAR.htm

External links

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