English court orders marine surveyors to assist in arbitration
The English Commercial Court has ordered British marine surveyors HR Wallingford to provide relevant documents to assist the arbitration between the owners of Tasman Spirit and the voyage charterers of the vessel.
The Tasman Spirit owners had made the application to obtain the documents on the safety of the port of Karachi where their tanker grounded in 2003, reports The Business Times. The ship owners\' losses, including pollution indemnity claims, have been reported to amount to almost US$6.6bn. The owners claimed that the vessel grounded because the port was unsafe and that meant that the Pakistan Shipping Corporation, to which the vessel was voyage chartered, was liable to them for breach of the safe berth warranty in the voyage charterparty. Full report in The Business Times