Emergency Contact Rob Shearer: Update on unseaworthiness — The CMA CGM LIBRA Home Latest updates News Rob Shearer: Update on unseaworthiness — The CMA CGM LIBRA 1 May 2019 Download Sign up for alerts The recent Admiralty Court decision of  Alize 1954 v Allianz Elementar Versicherungs AG (The CMA CGM LIBRA)  [2019] EWHC 481 (Admlty) (8 March 2019) provides ship owners with a further warning with regards to their duties in relation to seaworthiness and further strengthens the position of cargo interests. The facts On 17 May 2011 the  CMA CGM LIBRA , a modern container vessel, grounded whilst leaving the port of Xiamen in China. The vessel had left a buoyed fairway, and subsequently ran aground on an uncharted shallow area. While uncharted, recent notices to mariners had warned that many of the depths noted on charts were in fact much shallower than recorded. While the passage plan had not referenced the vessel leaving the fairway; it also had not made any reference to the warnings concerning depths being less than shown on charts. No areas in the passage plan were marked as “ no go ” areas. Owners declared general average (GA); 92% of the cargo interests paid their contribution but 8% refused to do so. The decision Owners brought a claim for the outstanding GA. In response the remaining cargo interests submitted there was an actionable fault that prevented owners from making a successful claim (a breach of Article III rule 1 of The Hague Rules). The case was heard in the Admiralty Court before the Admiralty Judge, Mr Justice Teare, who found for cargo interests on the following basis: The vessel’s passage plan was defective as it made no reference to uncharted shallow areas and did not clearly mark “ no go ” areas. It was therefore not capable of ensuring the safe navigation of the vessel or of preventing ad-hoc bad decision making. The defective passage plan rendered the vessel unseaworthy . This was following the well-established test in McFadden v Bl