ABSTRACT
The reason for such apparently quixotic behavior is difficult to find. The liability of shipowners for the unseaworthiness of their vessels is often limited in amount by international conventions or by contract or by both. When faced with limited recovery from the shipowner, the plaintiff may pursue the prospect of unlimited recovery from the ship’s classification society, however difficult the claim may be to establish. The most significant piece of litigation about classification society liability in the United States is still in progress. The contract between a shipowner and its classification society often contains a forum selection clause and the class certificates issued by the society typically incorporate the terms of that contract. The shipyard was bound to arbitrate its claim because it was an original party to the arbitration agreement. The traditional choice of law test in tort cases selects the lex loci delicti, the law of the place of the tort.
