I'm Giancarlo Enrico S. Pozon, a Wushu instructor, investor and Barrister... That's right, Barrister; I graduated from law school and took the Bar Exams, now I'm waiting for the results. I created this blog to make Philippine Law easy to understand for the average person. It's all about free legal advice. There are many law blogs. But the problem is that many of them are written for lawyers and law students. They use words that can't be understood by ordinary people.
Many lawyers, judges and law students consider themselves as superior to most human beings because of their knowledge of the law. It bothers me since the law is supposed to serve society. Since the law is meant to serve society as a whole, it is important that is must be understood by everybody.
This does not mean that we should all become lawyers. It means that although law is a highly specialized profession, the first duty of everybody in this profession is to make the law understandable to all; that's why all these articles are free legal advice.
Like I said, this blog is about law -but it's for the ordinary people, not the lawyers. It's for the ordinary folk so they will know what is good and bad for them, and that making them aware of the law will help us all improve society as a whole. This is free legal advice for everybody!
Under maritime law, the liability of the shipowner or agent is hypothecary* in nature and covers only the following:
1.) Collision
2.) Liabilities for injuries to 3rd parties
3.) Acts of the captain
*The liability is co-extensive with the shipowner's/agent's interest in the vessel so that if the vessel suffers a total loss, the liability disappears. Ergo, there is no liability if there is no vessel.
There are exceptions, however. Even if there is a loss, there will still be liability in any of the following:
1.) If the vessel is insured
2.) Claims for workmen's compensation
3.) Death/injury of a passenger is due either to the shipowner and captain's concurring negligence or the shipowner's fault
Because of the exceptions, there are cases where a ship is lost at sea through the owner's fault (such as ignoring a storm warning and venturing out -with the ship getting sunk as a result) and the owner can be held liable for the deaths of its passengers but not for the loss of its cargo.
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