Insurance Law Commons^™

Murphy's Law: The Pan Am Corollary, David V. Ainsworth

Golden Gate University Law Review

The venerable tension between marine protection and indemnity underwriters and marine cargo risk underwriters has increased materially as the result of a 1977 decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. California Stevedore and Ballast Co. (Pan Am). This decision is already breeding litigation, and there will certainly be more to come. Unfortunately, due to a scholastically and technically erroneous reading of the case by some members of the admiralty bar and bench, it is also causing practical problems for carriers and cargo interests alike.