Austen & Anor v Pearl Motor Yachts Ltd
2014
COMMERCIAL COURT
United Kingdom
CORAM
- MR JUSTICE EDER
Areas of Law
- Contract Law
- Commercial Law
2014
COMMERCIAL COURT
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case arose from the grounding of the yacht 'Temptation 2' due to a breach in the hull leading to flooding. The claimants, joint owners of the yacht built by the defendant, Pearl Motor Yachts Ltd, claimed repair costs and additional losses. The yacht was admitted to be non-compliant with the contract specification of hull thickness. The court found that the as-designed hull thickness would have prevented the fracture, thus siding with the claimants.
Judgment
Mr Justice Eder:
These proceedings arise out of the grounding of a motor yacht, Temptation 2 of Brighton, at about 1200 hours on 11 July 2008 while manoeuvring at slow speed amongst other yachts anchored in the Bay of Santa Ponsa in Majorca. The hull was breached aft in way of the port P-bracket and partial flooding of the hull resulted. On board at the time was the first claimant, Mr Brian Austen, who was piloting the yacht, his wife Mrs Austen and their son Andrew. I should mention that there was a suggestion that Mr Austen had acted negligently in the course of manoeuvring the yacht. However, Mr Mantle on behalf of the defendant expressly conceded that any such suggestion was irrelevant to the issues in the present case and I say no more about it.
Soon after the grounding, divers managed to apply underwater epoxy putty to seal the leak around the P-bracket recess in the hull, sufficient to allow the vessel to be pumped out using a salvage pump. The vessel was then towed off the rocks and lifted ashore at Santa Ponsa by about 1800 hours.
The claimants are the joint owners of the yacht which had been built by and purchased from the defendant, Pearl Motor Yachts Ltd. It was about 10 months old at the time of the incident and still under the defendant’s 2-year warranty. The yacht is part of a range of yachts under the “Pearl” brand. Under that brand, the defendant manufactures and sells a range of yachts currently sized between 50 feet to 75 feet. They manufacture between about 2 and 6 yachts annually. Thus, it is a small volume manufacture of yachts compared to larger yacht manufacturers. The Pearl brand is a more bespoke yacht.
The Pearl 60 is a 4-cabin aft cabin 60 feet motor yacht, the most popular model ever produced by the defendant. Initially the yacht was launched as the Pearl 55 in 2005 but in 2006 the yacht was upgraded. During the period 2005 to date, the defendant has sold about 27 Pearl 55/Pearl 60 yachts. Of these, 6 have been Pearl 55s and the remainder Pearl 60s. The Pearl 60s overall length is 17.468 metres. The draft depth below water is 1.525 metres. Its dry weight is 27.5 tonnes.
Following the incident, the yacht was returned to England for repairs. Those repairs were duly completed in around June 2009 following which the yacht was redelivered back to Majorca where it became usable again in August 2009. The total repair costs amounted to £456,781.76. In addition, the claimants say that they have suffered loss of use, loss