“The “Hanna D” – Victoria Navigation (Owners) vs Germanischer Lloyd
In this groundbreaking case, the owners of the ship sued the Classification Society for damages caused by wrongful, negligent survey and excessive certification complications and delays in provisional Class certification renewal for interim commercial performance and mitigation of damages (Piraeus Court of Appeal Dec. No 89/2011).
The near US $2 million award would in fact be much higher had owners not mitigated the damages, losses and costs gone at painstaking lengths with their technical consultants to work over the operational plans, devise temporary repairs and convince the superintendents of Germanischer Lloyd in Greece and in Germany of the of the ships interim navigation, safety and seawothiness. Finally succeeding to defer permanent repair of the hull damage, arranging and providing for the execution of the damage voyage, the discharge of the cargo at destination and the performance of the commercial committment.
This decision is one of the rare foreign court judgments which was not only reported but published in its entirety at the Admiralty and Maritime Law Committee Newsletter of the American Bar Association (attached p. 13-15 and 28-38)”.
