Article by Jonathan Spencer
This Article visits some current topics of interest in the area of hull and machinery insurance and general average. It examines the imperfect indemnity that can arise when the owner of a laden cargo vessel incurs expenditure in an unsuccessful attempt to salvage it after the operation of a maritime peril; recent developments in the evolution of the York-Antwerp Rules where, for the first time, we have two versions, the 1994 Rules and the 2004 Rules, existing in parallel with each other; the emerging phenomenon of pirates hijacking vessels for ransom; and the increasing trend towards absorbing general average up to a certain, previously agreed threshold under hull and machinery insurance policies.
About the Author
Jonathan Spencer. B.A. (Hons.) 1977, Oxford University, England. Mr. Spencer is an average adjuster and the principal of The Spencer Company, a marine claims consultancy in New York. He is a Full Member of the Association of Average Adjusters of the United States and a Member of that body's Executive Committee, a Member of the Association Mondiale de Dispacheurs (International Association of Average Adjusters) and sits on that body's General Council, and a nonlawyer Member of the Maritime Law Association (MLA) of the United States and chair of its standing committee on Marine Insurance and General Average. He is an instructor at the Center for Professional Education on the Manhattan campus of St. John's University and sits on the Education Committee of the Association of Average Adjusters of the United States. He attended the CMI conference in Sydney, which adopted the 1994 York-Antwerp Rules, as part of the U.S. MLA delegation and attended the CMI Vancouver conference, which adopted the 2004 York-Antwerp Rules, as an observer on behalf of the Association of Average Adjusters of the United States.
Citation
83 Tul. L. Rev. 1227 (2009)