Defendants to pay US$190,200 to owner of vessel damaged by waves from dredging

Matrix Engineering Works Limited, owners of the cabin cruiser Chaperone, has received a Supreme Court award of US$190,200 against two defendants whose vessel, while engaged in dredging activities in the Kingston Harbour, generated bow waves which damaged the Chaperone.

M/V Pedro Alvares Cabral, a motor vessel, and Sodraco International SAS, which operates the motor vessel, were named as defendants.

The claim arose out of an incident at Lime Cay, which is a popular recreational area outside of Kingston Harbour.

The claimant said its cabin cruiser was moored at Lime Cay on the morning of February 19, 2017, when Sodraco, which was conducting dredging activities, operated its vessel in a negligent manner that caused bow waves to damage the Chaperone.

Justice David Batts, in handing down judgment last month, said “It suffices to say that I have little hesitation in finding, on a balance of probabilities, that the defendants are liable to the claimant jointly or severally. The witnesses for the claimant gave accounts of what transpired which, although not identical, are sufficiently similar to suggest credibility.”

The judge said also that the defendants' captain and crew were therefore aware or reasonably ought to have been aware that pleasure craft often moored at Lime Cay. 

He said the claimant's vessel was clearly visible.

“Given that the defendants' servants and/or agents knew or ought reasonably to have known, of the size and power generated by their vessel's bow waves, an inference of negligence is difficult to avoid,” the judge held.

In referring to the claimant's evidence on liability, the judge said the claimant put in a video recording of the dredger's approach on the day of the incident and an email from Hopeton DeLisser of the Port Authority to Dupois Dieter of the defendant Sodraco in relation to a complaint from the Jamaica Defence Force Coast Guard about the effect of the dredger's bow waves and a suggestion that it should proceed more slowly within Kingston Harbour.

The email was sent to Dieter two days before the incident involving the claimant's vessel.

Attorneys-at-law Abe Dabdoub and Karen Dabdoub-Harris, instructed by Dabdoub, Dabdoub & Co., who represented the claimant, had asked for the market value of the vessel plus interest and the judge granted the award.

The judge said he accepted the submissions of attorney-at-law Kwame Gordon, instructed by Samuda &Johnson, who represented the defendants, that as the claimant is a company there should be no award for the loss of use of its non-profit earning chattel.

The judge said there was no evidence that the vessel was used in connection with the business of the company or that it was chartered out for hire or reward.
Batts said based on the evidence of expert witnesses, he found that the pre-accident market value of the vessel was US$110,000. 

He ordered the defendants jointly or severally to pay the claimant a total of US$190,200 being US$110,000 for the value of the vessel, US$75,000 for expert opinion, US$12,700 being the cost to ship the replacement vessel to Jamaica and minus US$7,500 for the value of the wreck.

Interest was awarded at three percent from February 2017 to the date of the judgment.

- Barbara Gayle

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