Principle of the marine salvage contract by which the salvor is paid only if it actually saves something, in proportion to the value saved.
The no cure, no pay principle governs the marine salvage contract, where the salvor intervenes on a ship in peril with no price fixed and is paid only on success, in proportion to the value of the ship, cargo and bunker fuel saved. On failure it receives nothing, whatever it committed. That structure aligns interests perfectly as long as what is at stake has an owner and a price, but it breaks the moment the threatened value belongs to no one, such as a coastline facing an oil slick. The market corrected the flaw through a special compensation and then a predetermined tariff clause that rewards environmental effort independently of any recovered value.
A salvor signs the standard form on the deck of a sinking ship, with no agreed price, the remuneration being fixed later by agreement or by arbitration in London.
no cure no pay, sans guérison sans salaire, sans guérison, sans salaire