Court case[1921] 3 KB 560

A ship owned by the claimants was chartered to the respondents, whose servants (stevedores) were unloading her at Casablanca. Her cargo included tins of benzine or petrol, some of which had leaked, so that the hold contained a quantity of petrol vapour. While the stevedores were moving cargo by means of a sling, a heavy plank, through their negligence, fell into the hold. As it fell it struck something and caused a spark, which ignited the petrol vapour; the fire spread and the ship was totally destroyed. The dispute went to arbitration. The arbitrators found that the fall of the plank was due to negligence, and that some damage to the ship from the fall might reasonably have been anticipated, but that the spark and the fire could not reasonably have been anticipated.

The Court of Appeal held the charterers liable for the whole loss of the ship. Once it is established that the act was negligent, because some damage to the plaintiff was foreseeable, the defendant is liable for all the damage that is the direct consequence of the act, whether or not that particular damage could have been foreseen. Foreseeability is relevant only to whether the act is negligent at all, not to the extent of the liability. Since the fire was a direct result of the negligent fall of the plank, with no intervening independent cause, the charterers had to pay for the total loss.