ABSTRACT
8.1 In English law the meaning of “inherent vice or nature of the subject-matter insured” in the context of marine insurance was authoritatively defined in 1983 by Lord Diplock in the House of Lords in Soya v White 2 as “the risk of deterioration of the goods shipped as a result of their natural behaviour in the ordinary course of the contemplated voyage without the intervention of any fortuitous external accident or casualty”. In 2011, the Supreme Court in The Cendor MOPU 3 reaffirmed and clarified this definition and in doing so definitively established the scope of inherent vice as a coverage defence under section 55(2)(c) of the Marine Insurance Act 1906 (MIA 1906) and general exclusion 4.4 of the Institute Cargo Clauses 1982 and 2009.
