The Privy Council handed down its decision today in the Cape Bari [2016] UKPC 20, the first appellate case since 1897 to consider the issue of whether and in what circumstances the Owners of a vessel may be found to have contracted out of their statutory right to limit their liability (a right now governed by the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976). 

Luke Parsons Q.C. and Paul Henton acted for the Owners, who were successful before the Court of Appeal of the Bahamas and in the Privy Council in arguing that they had neither waived nor contracted out of their right to limit their liability when they signed up to the Conditions of Use of the appellant, a Bahamian oil terminal.  The decision will now become the leading authority on contracting out of tonnage limitation regimes, and is also of wider importance for the guidance it offers on the question of contracting out of legal and statutory entitlements more generally.