No cure, no pay
The marine salvage principle under which the salvor is paid only if it saves something, and in proportion to the value saved.
No cure, no pay is the governing principle of marine salvage: the salvor gets paid only if it saves something. The salvor goes to a ship in peril with no price agreed and gets paid only if it succeeds, in proportion to the value of the ship, cargo and bunkers salved. If it fails, it gets nothing, no matter what it put in. The award can never exceed the salved value, and it is set after the fact on known criteria, such as the danger, the salvor's skill, the time spent and the risks it ran. The market's standard form is Lloyd's Open Form, often agreed over the radio or on deck, and the 1989 International Convention on Salvage follows the same logic. It is often confused with towage, paid at an agreed rate whatever the outcome, and with a lawyer's no win, no fee deal, which shares only the slogan. That setup aligns interests perfectly as long as what is at risk has an owner and a price. It breaks down the moment the threatened value belongs to no one, such as a coastline facing an oil slick. The market closed the gap first with special compensation, then with a clause carrying a pre-agreed tariff that pays for environmental effort regardless of any value recovered. On the insurance side, the salvage award is apportioned among the salved interests and recovered from their hull and cargo insurers.
Textbook case: a salvor signs the standard form on the deck of a sinking ship with no price agreed. The award is set later, by agreement or by arbitration in London.
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