Section 11.29 Loss-of-Use Damages

• Library: Tort Law 2016

F. (§11.29) Loss-of-Use Damages

Loss-of-use damages for pleasure craft are not recoverable. The seminal case regarding damages for loss of use of a pleasure boat is The Conqueror, 166 U.S. 110 (1897). In The Conqueror, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that the law is well-settled that "the loss of profits or of the use of a vessel pending repairs, or other detention, arising from a collision or other maritime tort, and commonly spoken of as ‘demurrage,’ is a proper element of damage . . . ." Id. at 125. The Court noted that "[i]t is equally well settled, however, that demurrage will only be allowed when profits have actually been, or may be reasonably supposed to have been, lost, and the amount of such profits is proven with reasonable certainty." Id. The Court then emphasized that:

It is not the mere fact that a vessel is detained that entitles the owner to demurrage. There must be a pecuniary loss, or at least a reasonable certainty of pecuniary loss, and not a mere inconvenience arising from an inability to use the vessel for the purposes of pleasure . . . . In other words, there must be a loss of profits in its commercial sense. In all the cases in which we have allowed...