M.v. Elisabeth & Ors V.

Harwan Investment And

Trading Pvt. Ltd
A PRESENTATION DONE BY
EPIFANIO DIAS
 What Is The Case About?
• The case is about the vessel MV Elisabeth that left the port of Mormugao, India, and
travelled overseas without issuing bills of lading or other documents required by the
respondent for the goods carried by it.
• The main allegation in this case was that the owners of ‘M.V. Elizabeth’ acted in
"breach of duty" by leaving the port of Mormugaon on 8.2.84 and delivering the goods
to the consignee contrary to the directions of the company. It thereby had committed
conversion of the goods entrusted with them.
 What Happened?
• The appellant vessel (MV ELISABETH) left the port of Marmagao, India, travelled
overseas without issuing bills of lading or other documents required by the respondent for
the goods carried by it. On reaching the port of destination, the appellant carrier
misdelivered the goods to the consignee, contrary to the respondent's instructions.
• Being aggrieved by this the respondent instituted an action in rem, invoking the admiralty
jurisdiction of the Andhra Pradesh High Court. The vessel was arrested when it entered the
port of Vishakapatnam, upon returning from foreign ports. The vessel was later released on
the owner’s furnishing security by way of Bank guarantee a sum of RS 14,25,000, as per
the court order.
• Later on, the appellant disputed that the Andhra Pradesh High Court does not have
jurisdiction over the vessel. This contention of the appellant was rejected by the Division
Bench of the High Court, against which the appellant moved an appeal before the Supreme
Court.
• There were 2 issues: 1. Whether the High Courts of India have the power to arrest the vessel
once it enters Indian waters for legal proceedings.
2. Whether Indian High Courts possess admiralty jurisdiction against a foreign ship, whose
owner is not a resident of India or does not have a business in India.
• The Supreme court dismissed the appeal on the ground that the trial court possesses
jurisdiction over this matter and further directed the case to be returned to the High Court.
It further stated that the Andhra Pradesh High Court undoubtedly possesses admiralty
jurisdiction claims relating to inward and outward cargo movements. Hence, the court
quoted that it did nothing wrong by ordering the arrest of the vessel from the port of
Visakhapatnam, as the Court had jurisdiction to order an arrest of the ship.
• Held: The case was held in The High Court of Andhra Pradesh as they undoubtedly
possessed jurisdiction over claims relating to inward and outward cargo movements.
Therefore the High Court rightly assumed jurisdiction by the arrest of the appellant vessel
while it was lying in the port of Vishakhapatnam.
TOLTEN SHIP COLLISION CASE
MV TOLTEN V MV HAMBURG
BAY
A PRESENTATION DONE BY
SACHIN TAMSE
What is the case about?

• The case is about a ship collision between 2 vessels in the Port Of Karachi.
MV Tolten and MV Hamburg Bay.
• Due to the collison the vessels faced a loss of more than 21 containers that
fell into the water.
What Happened?
• The incident occurred at the South Asia Pakistan Terminals facility in the Port of Karachi,
where the vessel MV Tolten collided with the already stationary vessel MV Hamburg Bay as
it was berthing disloding the containers stowed on its left side and sending them into the
water.
• A special operation to pull out the fallen containers from the sea was underway with the help
of Pakistan Navy. Sources said that the operation would take at least two to three days to be
completed.
• Two cranes of the KPT remained busy recovering the containers, assisted by divers of the
Pakistan Navy, throughout the day before the operation was halted for the day.
• The recovery operation is likely to span over a period of two to three days, maritime experts
told Geo News, following which the South Asia Port Terminal (SAPT) will open for traffic.
TORREY CANYON
THE WORLD’S MAJOR OIL TANKER DISASTER.

The day the sea turned black

More than 55 years after the supertanker ‘Torrey Canyon ran aground
off England, spurring every drop of its crude oil cargo into the
Atlantic, lets attempt to analyze the worlds first major oil tanker
disaster that put the meaning of environmental conservation in a new
context.
Even 55 years after the ship hit the rocks, it makes no wonder that this
incident still has a place in the heavy legacy of maritime disaster.
Details
i. Type of accident: Grounding
ii. Vessel: Torrey Canyon (Oil tanker)
iii. Date: 18th March 1967
iv. Place: Off England
v. Pollution: MAJOR
Introduction:
On 18th March 1967, the Liberian flagged supertanker ‘Torrey Canyon’
was en route from Kuwait to a refinery at Milford Haven, UK,
Loaded with 119,328 tons of crude oil shipped by BP trading limited
While underway at about 8:50am, the ship ran aground on the seven
stones reef, between the Isles of Scilly and Lands End in Cornwall.
“I just could not believe it. They’d hit the seven stones (reef) in broad
daylight.”
There were no fatalities, but the accident damaged the ships tank and
resulted to a spill of its vast cargo of crude oil into the sea.
Impact AND MEASURES:
The next day, the slick was 20 miles long. By March 25, oil began to
arrive on the Cornish beaches, affecting 100 miles of coastline.
A wide variety of methods to mitigate the spill were tried. Burning the
slick proved unsuccessful, and eventually the British govt. gave orders for
the Torrey Canyon to be destroyed by arial bombardment, so that all the
oil remaining onboard would be burnt off.
Between March 28 and 30, British Naval and Airforce bombed the ship in
order to open the remaining tanks and release the rest of the oil into the
sea.
The operation was partially successful but did not prevent the oil from
polluting many parts of the south west of England, causing the deaths of
thousands of seabirds and threatening the livelihood of local people.
Problem causes:
“In the opinion of the board of investigation set up by the Liberian government,
the stranding was due solely to the negligence of the master.”
The master had left the ship on autopilot overnight, but strong currents overnight
pushed the ship to the north and east and the chief officer altered her course
toward the north. When the captain awoke, he saw the Scilly Isles were
unexpectedly off his port.
The master ordered a change of course but that took the ship towards the seven
stones reef.
“He planned and tried to adjust his course by ordering a hard swing to port but
at the critical time, the ship did not respond. No doubt that was because he had
left the ship on autopilot. Only too late did he disengage the autopilot.”
Titanic the world’s most famous shipwreck that killed
over 1500 people, was what pushed maritime nations to
adopt SOLAS, the land mark Convention on the
shipping safety, in 1914.

Torrey Canyon is considered the accident that

led IMO to adopt MARPOL, the landmark convention
on pollution prevention from ships and the second pillar
of the shipping’s regulatory framework.
LESSONS LEARNED.
A major area of focus in this case was the oil spill response, eg. The
excessive and indiscriminate use of early dispersants and solvent based
cleaning agents were one of the factors leading to considerable
environment damage.
The spill triggered international conventions, which form the basis for
compensation for damage caused by tanker spills.
The inefficient handling which failed to prevent the spill magnitude, the
first tangible positive outcome from the disaster was to adoption of
International Convention relating to Intervention on the High Seas in case
of oil pollution casualties, 1969, affirming the right of a costal state to take
measures on the high seas necessary to prevent pollution in their coastline.
More importantly, the disaster was a major factor in development of the
International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships
(MARPOL), 1973. Unit that time, pollution control was still a minor
concern for shipping.
“It was essentially this incident that set in motion the chain of events that
eventually led to the adoption of MARPOL- as well as a host of
Conventions in the field of liability and compensation,”