| Award 1214

Award 1214 – Cargo insurance – Sugar cargo – Defaulting buyer – Extended storage – “All risks except…” policy – Appraisement of loss suffered by seller. Following a buyer’s failure to pay, goods were stored in sheds in an African port. After lengthy legal actions, the seller was able to recover and resell the goods which, in the meantime, had become impaired and depreciated. The cargo insurers declined to indemnify the seller on the grounds that the origin of the damage occurred before the policy was concluded. The arbitral Tribunal considered that, even if the rule of good faith is of the essence in matters of insurance, it was not proved that the assured tried to conceal the situation he had to face. It decided that, the proof of the loss being ascertained, the guarantee “all risks except…” should cover all risks which were not of commercial or financial nature, therefore, the depreciation was the loss capable of being compensated, but not the storage costs, the origin of which was a commercial dispute.