HJ Hansen Genvindingsindustri A/S (Hansen), a company engaged in scrap trading, had time chartered a vessel, the Rebecca Rousing (Rebecca), from 1 January 2010-31 December 2015. The shipping company C Rousing A/S (Rousing) was the owner of the Rebecca. According to the time charterparty agreement between Rousing and Hansen no inflammable or dangerous goods were allowed to be shipped on the vessel. The agreement also stated that Hansen would be responsible for loss or damage caused to the vessel by goods being loaded contrary to the terms of the parties’ agreement or by any other improper or negligent act on their part or that of their servants.

In May 2011, Hansen bought 800 tons of scrap, 50 tons of aluminium motors and 140 tons of complex scrap from Svensk Kabel & Metalgranulering AB (Svensk Kabel), a Swedish company, to be delivered in Odense, Denmark. During loading of the Rebecca in the port of Trollhättan, Sweden, a fire broke out in the vessel. Nørrejyllands Gensidige Søforsikringsforening (Gensidige), the insurer of the vessel, paid out insurance to Rousing for the damages, subrogated into Rousing’s claim and subsequently initiated proceedings against Hansen and Svensk Kabel.

Held: Judgment for the defendants.

Gensidige claimed that the fire was caused by the car scrap containing residues of illegal flammable liquids such as gasoline and petroleum and that this was dangerous goods, making Hansen and Svensk Kabel liable for damages. However, since the cause of the fire and its development was still uncertain the Maritime and Commercial High Court did not rule in favour of Gensidige’s claim and found that the strict liability in the Danish Merchant Shipping Act, s 291, could not be invoked.

The Danish Merchant Shipping Act, s 291, corresponding to the Hague-Visby Rules, art 4.6, provides that goods of an inflammable, explosive or dangerous nature to the shipment to which the carrier has not consented with knowledge of their nature and character, may at any time before discharge be landed at any place or destroyed or rendered innocuous by the carrier without compensation and further that the shipper of such goods shall be liable for all damages and expenses directly or indirectly arising out of or resulting from such shipment.

The Maritime and Commercial Court also found that the fire and its development was caused by several different factors. The Maritime and Commercial Court emphasised that there were no witness statements from the master or any crew members who had seen the actual fire and neither Gensidige nor Rousing had initiated any engineering examinations to further clarify the cause of the fire or initiated expert evaluations of the remaining scrap and the hold of the vessel. Due to these circumstances the Maritime and Commercial Court found that Gensidige had also not sufficiently proven that Hansen or Svensk Kabel were liable for damages according to the general law of damages.