Abandonment to underwriters
The marine assured's option to transfer ownership of the insured property to the underwriter and claim the full insured value.
Stellar Daisy, March 31, 2017: the bulk carrier vanishes in the South Atlantic with 260,000 tons of iron ore, and twenty-two seafarers never come back. The absence of news opens the case for abandonment without waiting for the wreck, which is located at a depth of 3,461 meters in February 2019. Abandonment is the act by which the marine assured gives up ownership of the ship or goods to the underwriter and claims the full insured value, as in a total loss. French law allows it only in listed cases, among them total loss, unseaworthiness, absence of news after a set period and repairs that would exceed three quarters of the value. English law requires a notice of abandonment, which the underwriter almost always declines while agreeing that the case be tried as if it had been given. Once accepted, abandonment transfers ownership: the underwriter inherits the wreck and the duties attached to it, removal first among them, hence the reluctance. The mechanism deals with a loss that is total in fact but partial in law, which would otherwise leave the assured owning an asset of no value and expensive to dispose of.
After the bulk carrier Stellar Daisy disappeared in the South Atlantic on March 31, 2017 with 260,000 tons of iron ore and twenty-two crew aboard, the absence of news opened the case for abandonment without waiting for the wreck to be located, which happened in February 2019 at a depth of 3,461 meters.
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