Guest: Jakob Reckhenrich of Quadrant Chambers

Case: The Stema Barge II [2025] EWHC 73 (Admiralty)

This week, Luke Zadkovich and Calum Cheyne sit down to discuss The Stema Barge II [2025] EWHC 73 (Admiralty) with Counsel for the successful Claimant/Second Appellant, Jakob Reckhenrich (Quadrant Chambers).

The dispute arose out of an incident with a dumb barge, the Stema Barge II. During a storm, she dragged her anchor across high voltage electrical cables between England and France, causing damage. As there were a variety of parties involved, liability for the ensuing loss became the key issue.

After success as trial, the Respondent, Stema UK, failed to convince the Court of Appeal that they were entitled to limit their liability under Art 1(2) of the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976 (The Stema Barge II [2021] EWCA 1880). When the Supreme Court refused to grant leave to appeal , the Respondent attempted to re-frame their case, this time under Article 1(4) of the Convention. Interestingly, the submission was set out in skeleton arguments, but as the Court of Appeal expressed a number of concerns with the point as a line of argument, it was ultimately withdrawn.

The Claimant/Second Appellant argued that Stema UK’s Article 1(4) plea should be struck out on the basis that there was already a final Order on the issue, and that leave to appeal had been refused. In the alternative, cause of action estoppel and/or the rule in Henderson v Henderson equally applied to prevent Stema UK from advancing the argument.

This discussion considers the principles of res judicata in the context of maritime law.  Calum, Luke and Jakob provide an in-depth analysis of the helpfully informative decision of Cockerill J, who ultimately found the Claimant/Second Appellant’s arguments persuasive.