MARITIME INSURANCE & MARINE CLAIMS

Maritime Insurance & Marine Claims



Table of Contents

Introduction2

Discussion & Analysis3

Types of Insurance3

Hague-Visby Rules4

The Statutory Responsibility of Ship Owner under the ISM Code4

The Impact of the ISM Code on Marine Insurance5

Designated Person8

Conclusion9

References10

Maritime Insurance & Marine Claims

Introduction

A contract is termed to be of marine insurance through which the insurer undertakes to recompense the assured, against marine losses, in manner and to the coverage thereby contracted, i.e., the incident of losses to marine escapade. The loss or smash up of vessels, freight, terminals, and any transportation or cargo through which goods is transported, obtained, or carried between the origin spots and final destination is covered by marine insurance. Irrespective of the method of transit, the loss or smash up of ships at ocean or on inland waterways, and of cargo in transit are covered by marine and marine cargo insurance. In case of separation between the cargo owner and the carrier, marine cargo insurance, in general, pay damages for losses held from shipwreck, fire, etc. to the owner of cargo, but omits losses that can be retrieved from the carrier or the insurance of the carrier. "Time element" coverage is included by many marine insurance underwriters in such policies, which widens the compensation to underwrite profit loss and other business expenditures due to the setback attributable to a covered loss.

The Marine Insurance Act takes account of, as a schedule, 'SG form' that is a standard policy, in which parties were entitled to make use of if they desired. Since through at least two centuries of judicial precedent, each condition in the policy had been examined, the policy was very comprehensive. Though, it was also articulated in quite outdated terms. The London market, in 1991, turned out a new standard policy wordage termed as the MAR 91 form and utilizing the Institute Clauses. The MAR form is just a generalized insurance statement; to specify the insurance cover's detail, the Institute Clauses are used. In actual fact, generally comprises of the MAR form, the policy document is used as a cover, with the Clauses affixed to the inside. Usually every clause will be affix with a stamp, overlying both to the clauses and onto the inside cover; exercise of this practice is for avoidance of the substitution or deletion of clauses. Typically marine insurance is covered on a subscription basis. Liability in legal terms, under the policy is quite a few and not mutual, i.e., the underwriters are only liable for their proportion or risk share and not for all together. The rest are not legally responsible to decide on his proportion of the claim, if one underwriter would default. In general, between the ships and the cargo, marine insurance is divided. “Hull and Machinery” (H&M) is generally the term used for insurance of the vessels. A more limited type of insurance is “Total Loss Only” (TLO), commonly exercised as a reinsurance, that only underwrites the entire vessel loss and not any fractional loss. (Gold ...