Transportation and Admiralty/Marine

Transportation and Admiralty/Maritime

Our Transportation and Admiralty/Maritime attorneys have diverse experience in handling transportation-related matters. Our experience extends to matters involving inland marine, ocean marine, motor carrier and aviation policies relating to property and hull losses, P&I and general liability and cargo claims. We handle coverage, defense and subrogation matters for our clients.

We assist our clients in navigating the various complex international conventions and U.S. Federal regulations that may come into play in transportation-related matters, such as the Hague Rules/COGSA, the Carmack Amendment, the Jones Act, LHWCA, DOHSA and the Warsaw and Montreal Conventions.

Our attorneys litigate casualty claims, including collisions, allisions, and other property and hull damage claims. We also defend against personal injury and wrongful death claims.

Our cargo experience is comprehensive and encompasses goods moving by ship, truck, train, and airplane; domestic, intrastate and interstate, and international; and multimodal transports; via bill of lading, air waybill, “through” bill and other transportation and shipping contracts.

We provide seminars and instruction on handling claims to our clients, which we tailor to meet their specific needs, i.e., best practices in handling cargo claims, important documents to obtain, identifying applicable law, time and monetary limitations and burdens of proof.

We assist our clients in drafting and reviewing terms and conditions for bills of lading, contracts of carriage, broker agreements and other shipping documents, as well as policy language for ocean and inland marine risks.

Danielle Sullivan Kaminski, Esquire is the head of Chartwell's Transportation and Admiralty/Maritime section. For more information on Ms. Kaminski, please click here.

Some representative matters :

Represented insurer in coverage action involving uberrimae fidei (utmost good faith) related to fishing vessel that sank off the coast of Massachusetts.
Represented insurer in coverage action involving claim for damage to cargo caused by Hurricane Rita.
Represented insurer in subrogation action against barge owner and Port Authority after barge sank.
Represented insurer of multi-million dollar vessel in Caribbean subrogation action arising from damage to vessel following a collision.
Represented insurer and motor carrier insured against cargo claim arising from motor vehicle accident.
Represented insurer and motor carrier insured against cargo claim for spoilage, involving broken reefer.
Represented insurer and motor carrier insured against cargo claim involving improper loading and packing.
Represented insurer and motor carrier insured against cargo claim for shortage.
Represented insurer in coverage action involving claim for bodily injury sustained when charterer fell off dock.
Represented insurer in property damage claim involving airplane and truck collision while airplane was taxiing in Puerto Rico.