In a ruling delivered Monday, Justice Nareshwar Harnanan ruled in favour of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Inc. awarding it over $255 million in damages, interest, and costs against the ship, Vlistdiep.
Justice Harnanan found that the ship negligently damaged GPL’s submarine cable on November 27, 2020.
In a statement of claim filed in April 2, 2021, GPL alleged that the ship Vlistdiep sailing with a Netherlands flag on November 27, 2020, dragged anchor and damaged its submarine cable laid on the floor of the Demerara River, resulting in several days of power outages in expensive subsea cable repairs.
GPL arrested the ship, which was released in exchange for a letter of undertaking issued by North P&I Club. GPL commenced suit alleging that the ship negligently, among other things, damaged its cable by failing to anchor outside the area designated by Guyana’s Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) maps, failing to ensure that the anchor was properly secured, failing to pay heed to MARAD’s notice to mariners concerning the position of the cable and failing to heed MARAD warnings.
The ship’s counsel, Nigel Hughes and Jed Vasconcellos of Hughes Fields and Stoby, argued that the vessel was not responsible for the damage and that it was under the control of a MARAD pilot.
After a lengthy trial involving the testimony of over six witnesses from MARAD and GPL, Justice Harnanan rejected these arguments and found that the ship breached its duty of care.
The judge found that MARAD officers gave crucial testimony and evidence as it related to standard operating proceedings for keeping a lookout. The Judge rejected submissions by the defendant to witnesses that the cable was not properly marked, who testified as to the international standard of MARAD’s chart, and which clearly established that the position of the cable was clearly marked.
The Judge also found that the ship had negligently dropped anchor which dragged as a result of the strong tide, and that the MARAD officers established that if there was proper lookout it would have immediately been noticed and the master failed to take appropriate action. T
he Court found that the evidence by the Claimant established on the balance of probabilities that it did not satisfy its duty of care, that it did it have the proper navigational charts, and that it caused GPL loss and damage.
In so doing the Court awarded GPL $200.9 million in special damages, $5 million in general damages with interest at 6% per annum from April 2, 2021 to the date of the judgment, and 4% thereafter until fully paid and fixed costs in the sum of $3 million totaling today in excess of $250 million inclusive of interest.
GPL was represented by Devindra Kissoon, Natasha Vieira, and Abhimanyu Dev of London House Chambers.