MARINE · 6 MIN READ

P&I, Maritime Liability Statutes, and Pollution

Protection and Indemnity is the liability side of ocean marine. The dominant providers are the International Group P&I Clubs - mutual, non-profit associations of shipowners who share losses through calls based on experience - while the commercial P&I market (Lloyd's syndicates and company markets) sells fixed-premium cover, typically to smaller tonnage. A single Club entry bundles the heads of cover: crew injury and illness (including Jones Act exposure and maintenance and cure), passenger liability, third-party bodily injury, cargo liability gaps, pollution, wreck removal, fines, and collision liability above the hull RDC. The Group pools large claims: each Club retains roughly the first $10 million, the Clubs share the next layers, and Group excess reinsurance runs the tower to about $3.1 billion (about $1 billion for oil pollution). Pleasure craft work differently - a yacht policy bundles hull and liability in one package - while commercial vessels pair separate Hull and Machinery cover with Club P&I entry. Several federal statutes allocate marine casualties. The Jones Act gives seamen negligence remedies against their employers plus the general maritime rights of maintenance and cure. The Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA) provides the exclusive wrongful-death remedy for deaths more than 3 nautical miles from U.S. shores, limited to pecuniary damages (a 2000 amendment expands recovery for commercial aviation deaths beyond 12 nautical miles). Inside territorial waters, the gap is filled by the general maritime wrongful-death action recognized in Moragne v. States Marine Lines. Longshore workers covered by the LHWCA may sue the vessel owner for negligence under section 905(b). The Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 lets a vessel owner petition after a casualty to cap liability, but only for losses occurring without the owner's privity or knowledge. Maritime lien claimants enforce against the vessel itself through in-rem arrest under Supplemental Rule C, with the ship as defendant and the U.S. Marshal seizing her. Pollution liability is statutory and strict. OPA-90 imposes strict, joint, and several liability on responsible parties for oil-spill removal costs and damages. Tank vessels over 300 gross tons must file evidence of financial responsibility with the Coast Guard National Pollution Funds Center and obtain a Certificate of Financial Responsibility (COFR). Statutory liability caps vanish when the incident is proximately caused by gross negligence, willful misconduct, or violation of a federal safety regulation, or when the party fails to report, cooperate, or comply with removal orders. Towage adds its own doctrine: a tug is not a common carrier of its tow and owes only reasonable care, but under Bisso v. Inland Waterways exculpatory clauses in towage contracts are void - which is why Tower's Liability cover on the tug owner's P&I is essential.