General Average

A legal principle which traces its origins in ancient maritime law, general average is still part of the admiralty law of most countries. General average requires three elements which are clearly stated by Mr. Justice Grier in Barnard v. Adams:

"Ist. A common danger: a danger in which vessel, cargo and crew all participate; a danger imminent and apparently 'inevitable,' except by voluntarily incurring the loss of a portion of the whole to save the remainder.

"2nd. There must be a voluntary jettison, jactus, or casting away, of some portion of the joint concern for the purpose of avoiding this imminent peril, periculi imminentis evitandi causa, or, in other words, a transfer of the peril from the whole to a particular portion of the whole.

"3rd. This attempt to avoid the imminent common peril must be successful".

The first codification of the general average principle were the York-Antwerp Rules of 1890 which were supplemented and amended in 1924, in 1949 and in 1974. While the Rules never had the force of law, American commercial concerns seem to have accepted the 1949 version in its entirety and bills of lading incorporate them verbatim.

Rule I of the 1974 version provides that no jettison of cargo can be made good as general average, unless such cargo is carried in accordance with the recognized custom of the trade. It should be noted that damage done to the ship in accomplishing a jettison of cargo is a general average sacrifice as Rule II states: "Damage done to a ship and cargo, or either of them, by or in consequence of a sacrifice made for the common safety, and by water which goes down a ship's hatches opened or other opening made for the purpose of making a jettison for the common safety, shall be made good as general average."

Rule G clearly states that general average is to be adjusted as regards both loss and contribution on the basis of values at the time and place where the voyage ends.

Claims for general average can either be asserted in ordinary state courts or in admiralty. Most litigation on this subject, however, tends to be in the admiralty court.


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