The Moorcock (1889) 14 PD 64 |Explained

By: Pragya Jain

The moorcock is a leading English case law which is related to the contract act, according to this case is related to the damage of the ship in the defendant jetty wharfingers.

PARTIES

Wharfingers is a defendant and owner of the jetty place and the other is the shipowner

FACT OF CASE 

The shipowner contracted the wharfingers to stand a ship at their jetty.

Hence both the parties are agree to the contract, the jetty was extended into the river Thames where the ship was mostly ground at low water. 

The Wharfingers jetty is in a place where soil erosion mostly occurs.

Once a day a ship stood on a jetty and soil erosion was occur due to low water levels the ship got damaged and the owner of the jetty does not have any control over it. The wharfingers know about the jetty place and he does not say anything about the condition of that jetty.

Now the shipowner claims the damages to the ship which is under the wharfingers' supervision.

ISSUES

 *whether the shipowner has a right to damages.

 * whether it is a responsibility of wharfingers for the protection of the ship which is placed on his jetty.

JUDGEMENT

The wharfingers do not indicate the place of the jetty and the river bed in the contract with the shipowner. When coming to a contract with a person the parties have to tell about all the situation which is a duty of the parties to disclose all the facts and figures.

If any terms are not disclosed by the party while coming into a contract with each other. And there is no implied warranty about the place where the ship stands in the contract, and there was no evidence for reasonable care of the ship.

The shipowner argued that it must have an implied term in the contract that the river was safe for his ship. so the owner of the ship was assumed that the jetty was a safe place for his ship.

Hence the shipowner wins the claim the whole purpose of a contract is to use the jetty and the jetty is not used without the vessel grounding. So the wharfingers must have an implied warranty regarding his ship and he is responsible for the damages to the ship which is standing on his jetty.

CONCLUSION

At last, I conclude that if any party gives anything to another, then that person has to take care of that thing or object until he/she does not take it back. And this is called the implied warranty.