ABC Containerlines: Some Issues for Insurers Concerning the Institute Clauses for Insolvency and Financial Default

Abstract

McKelvie presents this paper as part of Business Session 6 (Issues for Cargo Insurers). In this paper, he outlines some of the issues raised by insurers in New Zealand following the collapse of the ABC Container Line (and the arrest of the 'Cornelis Verolme') and their background, focusing in particular on the Institute Cargo Clauses (especially the exclusion clause 4.6). McKelvie argues that in most, if not all, circumstances, it was difficult both practically and legally to apply the Commodity Clauses' Insolvency and Financial Default exclusion clause, partly because of the difficulty in insurers understanding and identifying with the breadth and harshness of the conventional interpretation of the Institute Cargo Clauses exclusion clause.