“loss damage or expense caused by inherent vice or nature of the subject matter insured.”
This exclusion is not limited by the exception of claims resulting from variation in temperature (as is the corresponding exclusion in the Institute Frozen Food Clauses (A), since there is no specific reference to coverage in the Risk Clause for losses so caused. In the authors’ opinion, this does not necessarily mean that every claim based upon deterioration of the frozen goods by reason of loss of refrigeration will be caught by the “nature of the subject matter insured” exclusion. The question whether the assured will be able to recover for such deterioration will depend upon the application of the doctrine of proximate cause to the circumstances of the loss. For example, if in consequence of a collision, the refrigeration machinery is rendered totally inoperable, and the ship being disabled is unable to attain a port of refuge where the frozen goods could be discharged into a cold store until such time as the goods have deteriorated, it is submitted that there is an unbroken chain of causation between the collision and the consequential deterioration of the refrigerated goods.
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