Restitution for the Rescuer

Abstract

Preliminary proceedings can provide the opportunity for the investigation, rationalization and future systematic development of similar but hitherto disunited lines of authority. The classic example in the area of civil liability is, of course, Donoghue v Stevenson.' A not dissimilar opportunity, in a much less potentially expansive area, to consider the relationship between various situations in which restitution has been awarded to the providers of benefits in circumstances of necessity, has recently presented itself to the House of Lords in The Goring.2 The facts and the judgment give the decision an esoteric appearance which conceals its possible significance for the general law on restitution for necessitous interveners. The Goring is a large passenger vessel lying on the River Thames in Berkshire. One night, she broke loose from her moorings and floated unmanned downstream, raising the possibility of her damaging moored pleasure craft and their occupants and then of colliding with Reading bridge and going over a weir, when she might have become a total loss. Fortunately, she was observed by a member of the Island Bohemian Club, on his way to De Montfort Island, in the middle of the river, in the club's ferry boat. Four other members were summoned and the five, three men in the boat and two ashore, got a line on board the Goring and hauled her to a vacant mooring. As was to be observed by Sir John Donaldson MR (as he then was), the service, although valuable, hardly ranked as an epic of the sea.3 Nonetheless, the five rescuers, suing on behalf of themselves personally and of the club (the boat owner), issued a writ in rem claiming 'remuneration for salvage services'. The owners of the Goring responded by seeking a procedural remedy, applying to have the writ struck out, as disclosing no jurisdiction or cause of action, and it was partly the inappropriateness of the remedy which caused their defeat before Sheen J in the admiralty court.4 For a service which, in Donaldson MR's view, could have been settled, if not for the price of a round of drinks at the Bohemian Club, at least for a relatively modest sum,5 it may, therefore, seem surprising that there should