Both-to-Blame Collision Clause
The Both-to-Blame Collision Clause is a charter-party and bill-of-lading provision that re-allocates cargo's collision recovery between the two ships' owners.
The Both-to-Blame Collision Clause is a standard charter-party and bill-of-lading provision that addresses how a cargo interest’s recovery is shared between the two shipowners when a collision is caused by the fault of both vessels. It responds to a feature of United States law under which a cargo owner, barred by the carriage regime from suing the carrying ship, could recover in full from the non-carrying ship, which then passed a share of that liability back to the carrying ship, defeating the carrier’s cargo defences indirectly. The clause requires the cargo interest to indemnify the carrying ship against that passed-back share. It appears in the GENCON charter party (a standalone Clause 11 in GENCON 1994 and within the Protective Clauses of GENCON 2022) and in charter-party bills such as CONGENBILL. A full article will cover the clause’s origin in US collision law, its enforceability, and its relationship to the general average and Hague-Visby regimes.