Louis Flannery exposes flaws in the Brussels Regulation
On a hot, quiet day in August 2000, a large oil tanker was docking at a jetty in Syracuse, Sicily; the birthplace of Archimedes, the world’s first ship engineer. The ship was the Front Comor. It had Liberian-registered owners, West Tankers Inc. It was chartered to Italian charterers, Erg Petroli SpA (Erg). Erg also owned the jetty. The ship collided quite badly with the jetty; both suffered damage. Italian insurers, including Generali, insured the damage to the jetty and Erg’s consequential losses. Erg claimed and recovered more than €15m from its insurers. It then sought to recover the excess from West Tankers, alleging that the vessel was unseaworthy. The charter party between Erg and West Tankers contained an English law clause and assigned all disputes to arbitration in London. Erg therefore brought its claims against West Tankers in arbitration in London. West Tankers counterclaimed for a declaration of non-liability.
Subrogation
So far, so good. Except for the insurers. Under Italian civil law, a principle of subrogation exists, which enables an insurer
