ABSTRACT
The motor cruiser Miss Jay Jay left Deauville about lunchtime on 15 July 1980 to cross the English Channel to Hamble. The cruiser was owned by J. J. Lloyd Instruments who had insured her with Northern Star Insurers. Northern Star claimed that there had been nothing accidental about the loss. On appeal, the insurer claimed that the loss was not caused by 'accidental external means'; that the cruiser was unseaworthy due to its design defects; and that it was the design defects, and not the adverse sea, that were the prime cause of the loss. Lord Justice Lawton, in his judgment, said that a properly designed and built cruiser should not have been damaged by the conditions which the Miss Jay Jay encountered. This was enough to make what happened 'accidental'. As the cause of the damage came within the terms of Lloyd Instruments' insurance policy they were entitled to the compensation available under it.
