SHIPPING CLAIMS.

Evening Star, Issue 14163, 13 September 1909, Page 5

SHIPPING CLAIMS.

HOME ANP COLONIAL INTERESTS.

A SERIOUS POSITION

Tho cables last week informed us that the Liverpool and London Steamship Protection Association had given notice to tho companies trading; in Australian and N,c\y Zealand waters of their intention to refuse renewals of their entries after February 20, because the claims have been far' in excess of their contributions to tho Association.

I'The Liverpool and Londpp Steamship Protection Association," explained the management of the Union Steam Ship Company to a member of our staff this morning, " was established to protect and indemnify the members of the Association upon tjie mutual principle against losses for whiph the members may bp found liable in respect of steamships in which thoy aro interested as owners or agents. Tho losses against which they are covered include loss of life or personal injury, damage to ships, to merchandise, or to wharves, and other casualties, which need not be recapitulated at length, arising out of improper navigation, or from any other negligence of the owners' servants ; and in respect of claims for loss of life or personal injury tho Association protect their members to the full limit of the British statutory liability—viz., £ls per ton.

" Shipowners pay an eutrance foe for each ship entered in the Association, and claims are met by making a call upon the members, levied upon the gross tonnage of the ships entered. The management expenses of the Association are provided hy striking annually a rate on tho contributory tonnage, and claims are mot by a levy upon the total tonnage entered! Most of the important colonial lines of steamships are entered in the Liverpool and London Protection Association, by far the largest being that of the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand.

"The decision of the Protection Association to exclude Australian and New Zealand Jines from membership does not come altogether a.s a surprise. Australian and New Zealand claims for injuries to seamen and wharf laborers have increased very greatly, both in millibar and amount, since the Workers' Compensation Act and kindred Acts came, into for,ce, and are so out of proportion to thoso made at Home that the Association haye had to consider the position seriously. New Zealand legislation presses more heavily upon the employer than docs that of other countries, and the Protection Associations at Home do not like the frequent changes that are made jn existing Acts, which result in increasing the burden thrown upon the employers. For instance, while the New Zealand Shipping and .Seamen's Act adopts the British statutory limit of £ls per ton as the limit of liability of shipowners in case of loss of life or personal injury, the Workers' Compensation Act cancels this and makes tho liability unlimited. Again, tho protection which employers previously received under the Employers' Liability Act, by which they were free from liability in the case of accidents resulting from the negligence of a fellow-employee, lias been abolished by the "Workers' Compensation Act, which now makes the employer responsible at common law for any injury sustained by the negligence of a feltow-sorvant. The increase of the death compensation from C 100 to £oOO is a recent additional liability thrown on the employer. "These enactions, and also the wellknown sympathy of juries with claimants when the defendant is a large company or corporation, bv which damages are often awarded out of all .proportion to the injuries received, have created an unfavorable impression upon Protection Associations at Home, and, so far as the Union Company are concerned, the Liverpool and London Protection Association have frequently during the last few years drawn the company's attention to the heavy claims which have been made bv them —claims out of proportion to those of Home members, and far exceeding in amount the contributions made by the Company.

"The notice- given by the Liverpool nmt London Protection Association that after February next entries of Australian and New Zealand steamship companies will not he renewed places tho latter in v, very serious position. The loss of a single passenger ship under circumstances which might bo hold to show negligence on the part of the master or officers might on tail a minimum claim on the owners of £IOO,OOO for loss or injury to persons alone, quite apart from tho loss of the ship. Tlhb is » risk no company can afford to run, and in tho face of the experience of tho Liverpool and London Association ordinary insurance companies will require a heavy premium to cover it.