ABSTRACT
The phrase ‘‘sue and labour’’ encapsulates the obligation to minimise loss under a marine policy, and the right to recover for expenditure reasonably incurred in seeking to do so. The right to reimbursement from insurers of sue and labour expenditure is a special feature of marine insurance. The common law does not imply a contractual obligation on insurers to reimburse expenditure incurred by the assured in order to minimise a loss for which insurers would otherwise have been liable. In Yorkshire Water Services Limited v. Sun Alliance and London Assurance8 it was held, in relation to a non-marine liability policy, that there was no basis for implying a term by operation of law that the insurers would reimburse the assured for expenses incurred to minimise loss that might fall upon the insurers.9 The courts, in terms of general contractual obligations, proceed on the basis that the mere fact that an obligation is imposed upon one party to the contract for the benefit of the other does not carry with it an implied term that the latter shall reimburse the former for his costs incurred in performance of the obligation.10
