Article 123p. 123

COMMERCIAL LAWS NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS, CORPORATION, INSURANCE, TRANSPORTATION, BANKING

5. The necessary expenses on arrival at a port, in order to

make repairs or secure provisions.

6. The lowest value of the goods sold by the captain in

arrivals under stress for the payment of provisions and in

order to save the crew, or to cover any other requirement

of the vessel against which the proper amount shall be

charged.

7. The victuals and wages of the crew during the time the

vessel is in quarantine.

8. The damage suffered by the vessel or cargo by reason

of an impact or collision with another, if it were accidental

and unavoidable. If the accident should occur through

the fault or negligence of the captain, the latter shall be

liable for all the damage caused.

9. Any damage suffered by the cargo through the faults,

negligence, or barratry of the captain or of the crew,

without prejudice to the right of the owner to recover the

corresponding indemnity from the captain, the vessel,

and the freight.

ARTICLE 810. The owner of the goods which gave rise to

the expense or suffered the damage shall bear the simple

or particular averages.

ARTICLE 811. General or gross averages shall be, as a

general rule, all the damages and expenses which are

deliberately caused in order to save the vessel, her cargo,

or both at the same time, from a real and known risk, and

particularly the following:

1. The goods or cash invested in the redemption of the

vessel

or

cargo

captured by enemies, privateers, or

pirates, and the provisions, wages, and expenses of the

vessel detained during the time the arrangement or

redemption is taking place.

2. The goods jettisoned to lighten the vessel, whether

they belong to the vessel, to the cargo, or to the crew, and

the damage suffered through said act by the goods kept.

3. The cables and masts which are cut or rendered

useless, the anchors and the chains which are abandoned

in order to save the cargo, the vessel, or both.

4. The expenses of removing or transferring a portion of

the cargo in order to lighten the vessel and place her in

condition to enter a port or roadstead, and the damage

resulting therefrom to the goods removed or transferred.

5. The damage suffered by the goods of the cargo

through the opening made in the vessel in order to drain

her and prevent her sinking.

6.

The

expenses

caused

through

floating

a

vessel

intentionally stranded for the purpose of saving her.

7. The damage caused to the vessel which it is necessary

to break open, scuttle, or smash in order to save the

cargo.

8. The expenses of curing and maintaining the members

of the crew who may have been wounded or crippled in

defending or saving the vessel.

9. The wages of any member of the crew detained as

hostage

by

enemies,

privateers,

or

pirates, and the

necessary

expenses

which

he

may

incur

in

his

imprisonment, until he is returned to the vessel or to his

domicile, should he prefer it.

10. The wages and victuals of the crew of a vessel

chartered by the month during the time it should be

embargoed or detained by force majeure or by order of

the Government, or in order to repair the damage caused

for the common good.

11. The loss suffered in the value of the goods sold at

arrivals under stress in order to repair the vessel because

of gross average.

12. The expenses of the liquidation of the average.

ARTICLE 812. In order to satisfy the amount of the gross or

general averages, all the persons having an interest in the

vessel and cargo therein at the time of the occurrence of

the average shall contribute.

ARTICLE 813. In order to incur the expenses and cause the

damages corresponding to gross average, a previous

resolution of the captain, adopted after deliberation with

the sailing mate and other officers of the vessel, and with

a hearing of the persons interested in the cargo who may

be present, shall be required.

If the latter shall object, and the captain and officers, or a

majority, or the captain, if opposed to the majority, should

consider

certain

measures

necessary,

they

may

be

executed under his liability, without prejudice to the

freighters exercising their rights against the captain

before the judge or court of competent jurisdiction, if

they can prove that he acted with malice, lack of skill, or

negligence.

If the persons interested in the cargo, being on the vessel,

should not be heard, they shall not contribute to the

gross average, which contribution shall be paid by the

captain, unless the urgency of the case should be such

that the time necessary for previous deliberation was

lacking.

ARTICLE

814.

The

resolution

adopted

to

cause

the

damages

which

constitute

a

general

average

must

necessarily be entered in the log book, stating the

motives and reasons therefor, the votes against it, and the

reasons for the disagreement should there be any, and

the irresistible and urgent causes which moved the

captain if he acted of his own accord.

In the first case the minutes shall be signed by all the

persons present who could do so before taking action if

possible, and if not at the first opportunity; in the second

case by the captain and by the officers of the vessel.

In the minutes and after the resolution there shall be

stated in detail all the goods cast away, and mention shall

be made of the injuries caused to those kept on board.

The captain shall be obliged to deliver one copy of these

minutes to the maritime judicial authority of the first port

he may make within twenty-four hours after his arrival,

and to ratify it immediately by an oath.

ARTICLE 815. The captain shall supervise the jettison, and

shall order the goods cast overboard in the following

order:

1. Those which are on deck, beginning with those which

embarrass the handling of the vessel or damage her,

preferring, if possible, the heaviest ones and those of least

utility and value.

2. Those in the hold, always beginning with those of the

greatest weight and smallest value, to the amount and

number absolutely indispensable.

ARTICLE 816. In order that the goods jettisoned may be

included in the gross average and the owners thereof be

entitled to indemnity, it shall be necessary in so far as the

cargo is concerned that their existence on board be

proven by means of the bill of lading; and with regard to

those belonging to the vessel, by means of the inventory

made up before the departure, in accordance with the

first paragraph of Article 612.

ARTICLE 817. If in lightening a vessel on account of a

storm, in order to facilitate her entry into a port or

roadstead, part of her cargo should be transferred to

lighters or barges and be lost, the owner of said part shall

be entitled to indemnity, as if the loss has originated from

a gross average, the amount thereof being distributed

between the entire vessel and cargo which caused the

same.

If, on the contrary, the merchandise transferred should be

saved and the vessel should be lost, no liability can be

demanded of the salvage.

ARTICLE 818. If, as a necessary measure to extinguish a

fire in a port; roadstead; creek, or bay, it should be

decided to sink any vessel, this loss shall be considered

gross average, to which the vessels saved shall contribute.

© Compiled by RGL

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