CHARTER PARTIES

GENCON - Clause 2

Owner's Responsibility Clause

CLAUSE 2

2. Owner's Responsibility Clause	15
The Owners are to be responsible for loss of or damage to the goods or for	16
delay in delivery of the goods only in case the loss, damage or delay has been	17
caused by personal want of due diligence on the part of the Owners or their	18
Manager to make the Vessel in all respects seaworthy and to secure that she is	19
properly manned, equipped and supplied, or by the personal act or default of	20
the Owners or their Manager.	21
And the Owners are not responsible for loss, damage or delay arising from any	22
other cause whatsoever, even from the neglect or default of the Master or crew	23
or some other person employed by the Owners on board or ashore for whose	24
acts they would, but for this Clause, be responsible, or from unseaworthiness of	25
the Vessel on loading or commencement of the voyage or at any time	26
whatsoever.	27

The 1994 revision of Clause 2, Owner’s responsibility, differs from the 1976 edition in this sense that the responsibility of the owner regarding the proper or negligent stowage of the goods (unless stowage performed by the shippers/Charterers or their stevedore or servants) has been deleted from the 1994 edition. For further details see paragraph (a) Costs/Risks of clause 5, Loading/Discharging.

The owner is only responsible for loss of or damage to the goods or for delay in delivery of the goods if he or their managers failed to exercise personal want of due diligence to make the vessel in all respects seaworthy and to secure that she is properly manned, equipped and supplied, or by the personal act or default of the owner or his manager.

In other cases (paragraph (b) of Clause 2), the owner is not responsible for eventual damage, even from a fault or neglect of the master, or in case of unseaworthiness of the ship on loading or commencement of the voyage or at any time whatsoever, which is perfectly allowed under a charter party because this agreement does not resort under the rules of imperative law.

According to the terms of the charter party the responsibility of the Ship Owner towards the cargo is rather limited. When negotiable bills of lading are issued, which are governed by the Hague Rules or the Hague-Visby Rules, and which belong to the imperative law, serious problems can arise since the bill of lading is an agreement between the master and the receiver of goods, whereby the master commits himself to deliver the goods in the same good condition as at reception so that he is responsible is for the good care of the goods at any time.

For these reasons the master will do everything he can to keep his ship in a good state of seaworthiness and to handle and stow the cargo in accordance with good seamanship.

Concerning the limitations of liability of the carrier and more in particular the seaworthiness of the ship and the handling of goods see the chapter on bills of lading.

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