Often overlooked but of equal importance are ‘house-keeping’ competencies on the part of the surveyor. At first blush, these competencies may seem unimportant but the price for giving scant regard to them can be far-reaching with irreversible and adverse consequences for the member and the club. A sample of these ‘skills’ includes the following:


i)


Clarity as to the precise scope of one’s instructions e.g.; whether one is appointed as a gatherer of fact or provider of expert opinion or both;


ii) Good co-ordination with other service providers; iii) Clarity as to the identity of the appointing principal; iv) Regular updates to the appropriate person at the principal’s office; v) Diplomacy and not jumping to conclusions; vi) Not handing over documents or granting access of key information and documents to the opponent surveyors without prior permission of the principal and club; and


vii) Prompt, clear and relevant reports including provision of estimates of exposure at the earliest possible opportunity albeit provisional with periodic reviews, as appropriate and as matters develop.


b) Cross disciplines


The extent of P&I cover is wide-ranging and often involves marine claims which are multi-disciplinary in nature. Ideally, the appointed surveying firm possesses competent multi-disciplinary expertise to attend to all aspects of a P&I claim. The reality however, is that there exist few such one-stop shop surveying firms. The chances are even more remote that any one surveyor possesses all the required expertise to investigate the full range of P&I claims.


It is


therefore reasonable to expect a surveyor to know and be able to provide recommendations to the club of specialists in their locality (e.g. cargo, chemical, fire or metallurgy experts).


More importantly, a surveyor ought to be able to work well with other professionals across-disciplines, be they on the same or opposing sides of a claim. Many a dispute can and has been amicably and efficiently settled with the assistance of surveyors and experts agreeing on the parameters of the issues and working in tandem to narrow the competing interests of the parties involved.


c) Independence


It is the duty of the surveyor to assist the member and club so that they are best-placed to advance their claims or to meet the claims against them. At the same time, the surveyor has an overarching duty to remain independent and objective.


For instance, where the facts and evidence are plain, the surveyor should have the fortitude and diplomacy to timeously advise the club and member that upon a true assessment of the evidence, the technical position of the member may or may not be as robust as initially anticipated. This would provide the member and the club with an opportunity to review their posture and the strategy with legal advisors.


In cases where the surveyor is appointed as an expert witness, his obligation to be independent is even more pronounced18


, and is regardless of the party who appointed him.


18 per Lord Wilberforce in Whitehouse v Jordan [1981] House of Lords: ‘…Whilst some degree of consultation between experts and legal adviser is entirely proper, it is necessary that expert evidence presented to the court should be, and should be seen to be, the independent product of the expert, uninfluenced as to form or content by the exigencies of litigation. To the extent that it is not, the evidence is likely to be not only incorrect but self-defeating…’


The Report • December 2018 • Issue 86 | 41


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