1. Charterers' Liability Insurance
2. Marine Defence Insurance
3. Cargo Owners’ Legal Liability Insurance
4. Fringe covers 

Below please find a summary of these insurances:
 

Charterers' Liability Insurance
 

Charterers' liabilities are the contractual and legal liabilities of the Charterer of a ship.
Ship and cargo are together during the voyage, but the parties to be identified in the string of contracts are not. Certain liabilities are inherent to chartering and cannot be avoided.
 

It is a matter of active prevention to secure the financial exposures through a Charterers Liability Insurance, but that is not enough. It is also necessary to understand the nature of the cover and even more so, it's restrictions and exclusions.
 

Cover is being provided in the following sections:

• damage to the vessel 
• death and personal injury
• damage to property of third parties
• damage to cargo
• collision
• wreck removal
• quarantaine costs
• pollution
• general average
• costs of formal investigations
• sue and labour costs
• fines 

The main risks are liability to loss of or damage to cargo, liability to damage to the vessel and costs, which are explained as follows:
 

1. Liability to Cargo 

Depending on the type of Charter Party and it's amendments the Charterer may be held liable for loss of or damage to cargo arising from:

• bad stowage
• handling damages (stevedores)
• shortages (pilferage, tally, etc)
• on-delivery (non arrival, wrong port, etc)  

2. Liability to damages to the vessel
 

The principle rule is that the Charterer of a ship can be liable for damages to the vessel caused during the contracted voyage or period. Also when in certain Charter Parties it is stipulated that stevedore damages have to be settled between the Owners and the Stevedores the Charterers are ultimately liable. The type of liabilities for which the Charterers can be held liable are:

• stevedore damages
• damage to the ship by the cargo carried
• damage to the ship by defective fuel oil
• unsafe port/berth 

If the chartered ship must be repaired and the Charterer is liable for the damages to the ship the time lost by the repairs are also covered.
 

3. Costs 
 

All costs, which have to be made to defend a legal liability claim are covered under the Charterers' Liability insurance. The costs that are regularly incurred are survey expenses and lawyer fees. Even if the Charterer is not liable, but a party is pursuing a claim, the costs for such unwarranted liability claim are also covered.
 

Restrictions and exlusions
 

The most important restrictions and exclusions of a Charterers' Liability Insurance are as follows:
 

1. It is not allowed to waive any rights of legal limitation sums, which will apply in any legislation or convention.
2. Cover for loss or damage to cargo is subject to Hague / Hague-Visby Rules. Any rights or immunities may not be waived. In countries where the Hamburg Rules apply compulsory cover will be extended accordingly.
3. P&I insurance will give subsidiary cover, which means that any other policy, which will cover certain liabilities, will prevail.
4. Loss or damage to own or leased containers or other own or leased equipment is not covered.
5. Loss of freight, hire or bunkers is not covered.
6. Loss of time as a result of cancellation of a vessel is not covered.
7. Financial losses resulting from bad debtors are not covered.
8. Insolvency or fraudulent acts of agents are not covered.
9. On carriage of goods the following occurrences are excluded from cover:
    

1. issuance of "ad valorem" bills of lading
2. carriage of jewelries and banknotes, unless agreed in writing with the insurer
3. deviation of the contracted voyage
4. delivery of goods without original bill of lading
5. issuance of ante- or post-dated bills of lading
6. issuance of bills of lading with intentionally wrong description
7. carriage of goods on deck
   For the items under a, b, c and g additional insurance can be obtained.
    

Letter Of Indemnity (L.O.I.)

We are aware of the fact that L.O.I.'s are negotiated to find solutions for irregularities (clean Bs/L, change of destination, delivery of cargo without original B/L). It should however be noted that the above restrictions and exclusions remain fully in force, even if a letter of indemnity is negotiated through our recommended wording.

2. MARINE DEFENCE INSURANCE

This type of insurance covers the legal costs and expenses, which a Charterer is bound to make due to a dispute under the Charter Party or as a result of a dispute with any party related to the carriage of the goods for which a vessel was chartered.
 

The reasonable legal costs and expenses are covered in respect of claims and disputes in connection with:

• hire or off-hire, freight, deadfreight, detention, laytime, demurrage, despatch or any other claim or dispute under the Charter Party, Bill of Lading or another contract of carriage in respect of the Insured Vessel;
• supplies to the Insured Vessel;
• charges, disbursements and accounts received from agents, stevedores, customs, brokers, harbour authorities or other servants of the Assured;
• loading, stowing, trimming, discharging, lighterage of cargo on, or from the Insured Vessel;
• loss of, damage to or detention of the Insured Vessel;
• general or particular average contributions or charges;
• salvage or towage services rendered to the Insured Vessel;
• representation of the Assured at official investigations or other inquiries in relation to the Insured Vessel;
• actions by, or against passengers intended to be or being or having been carried on the Insured Vessel, provided the carriage of passengers was approved by the Company;
• actions by, or against crew members, or their personal representatives or dependants and stowaways;
• actions by, or on behalf of a State or any public body against the Assured or the Insured Vessel;
• amounts due from, or to insurers, other than the Company. 
•  

The cover includes - free of charge - all the work being carried out by our claim handling staff, who are all have shipping and chartering experience and will do their utmost to bring defence claims to a quickest possible solution. It should however be noted that an insurance policy cannot be treated as an extension of your operations department. Each dispute will require the full attention and support of your chartering and/or operations staff, especially in providing full background information, collecting of evidence and copies of all correspondence and contracts.
 

3. CARGO OWNERS’ LEGAL LIABILITY INSURANCE
In those cases where the Charterer is also the owner of the goods being carried on the chartered ship, it may happen that certain liabilities emerge whereby the Assured is not sued in his capacity as Charterer of the ship, but as the owner of the goods on board. To close this gap of potential liability we can offer additional liability cover as cargo owner.
 

4. FRINGE COVERS:
As and when required we can provide additional cover for the following insurances:

BUNKER INSURANCE
A Timecharterer is buying the vessel’s fuel. The value can be insured against total loss following an incident with the chartered vessel. The bunker insurance will also cover the contributory value in case of a General Average
 

FREIGHT INSURANCE

When the freight to be earned for the voyage becomes only payable on or after delivery of the goods in the discharging port, the freight value is at risk during the voyage. If the cargo is lost during the voyage the Charterer will not receive the freight. This risk can be covered with a freight insurance
 

S.O.L. INSURANCE

Our Charterers Liability Insurance is covering a regular sequence of events all in conformity with underlying contracts. The standard rule is that cargo must be shipped as stated on the Bills of Lading. If the Charterer commits a breach of contract, which is subject to an exclusion as stated above under “Restrictions and Exclusions” we might be able to arrange coverage through a S.O.L. Insurance. Any breach or deviation must be reported prior to commencement of the voyage, so that the cover can be arranged.
S.O.L. is the standard name of this insurance and it stands for ‘Shipowners Liability Insurance’. Notwithstanding this name Charterers can use it as well.
 

Examples of a deviation or breach of contract are as follows:
- Transhipment without being mentioned in the B/L ;
- Cargo shipped on deck whereas under deck B/L is issued ;
- The B/L is ante-dated or post-dated ;
- Actual port or ports is not in conformity with the port or ports in B/L ;
- Intermediate storage cargo before delivery as per B/L ;
- Geographical deviations, which are not mentioned in the B/L ;