Bottomry

The Bodmerei ( Verbodmung, French Contrat à la grosse, Eng. Bottomry, derive from Bome, synonymous with keel, or " floor," that is, the ship's bottom, as the main constituent of the ship ) is a historical term in maritime law. It was the loan agreement with the creditor by the captain (or the supercargo ) took over the Seegefahr on a sea voyage to guarantee a premium and against the pledge of the ship, its cargo, cargo, or all or more of these objects. This is a ( for maritime trade specific ) special case of the fact that non- owners may pledge foreign assets legally valid.

With the eventual demise of the mortgage objects also the creditor's claim ( Bodmeristen, Bodmereigebers ) went out of capital and premium.

Particulars

History

In case of partial destruction of the pledged property, the requirement of Bodmeristen diminished to the debtor ( Bodmereinehmer ) up to the value amount of the still existing, such as the right saying goes: It adheres everything that brings the soil on land. The Bodmerei is nauticum with the Foenus, the Seedarlehen of the Romans, in a historical context in which higher interest rates than were otherwise permitted by law permitted.

From this then developed in the Middle Ages, the so-called Großaventurei, also called Respondentia, a common particularly in France and England Seedarlehnsvertrag, which for the purchase of goods which are to be shipped by sea, completed and in which the creditor granted a bonus and a lien on was granted to the goods to be sent against the acquisition Seegefahr.

From Großaventurei but the Bodmerei ever developed, for which, in general, the rule was that anyone could verbodmen, which was entitled to the pledge of the object in question, ie. Regarding the ship shipowner in respect of the charge to the shipper Even the skipper was allowed the pledge of ship, freight and cargo in certain circumstances during the trip.

Notbodmerei in the German Commercial Law

This latter case is true Bodmerei, also called Notbodmerei by then summarized all other cases under the name of inauthentic Bodmerei. The German Commercial Code (HGB, Book V, Tit 7) acted only from the actual Bodmerei by declaring in § 680: " Bodmerei within the meaning of this code is a loan business, which by the skipper ( captain ) as such by virtue of this will be discussed Code issued to him powers under assurance of a premium and under pledge of ship, freight and cargo, or of one or more of these items in a way that the creditors because of its claims only to the pledged ( verbodmeten ) goods, the vessel's arrival at the place can hold on to where the journey will end, for which the business is entered ( Bodmereireise ) ".

Such Bodmerei could but after the commercial code only in an emergency, when the ship was outside the home port to be included for the purpose of execution of the journey, and indeed but the charge could verbodmen regularly both the ship and the cargo alone the skipper, only together with the ship and the cargo; the charge alone could only be verbodmet if this labor-time required a sole interest of the cargo interests for the purpose of preservation and forwarding of cargo during the voyage.

The existence of an emergency is the way, as long as has not been proven to the contrary, then considered to be present if the necessity of entering into the business of the country's consul or, in absence thereof, by the court or other competent authority of the place of exhibition or provided it also lacked in such activity, was testified in documents of the ship's officers.

The Bodmereivertrag itself had to be established in writing in accordance with the German Commercial Code. The document in question, legally structured as a " gekorenes bearer security ", which had to be issued at the request of Bodmeristen in several copies, as well as order and could be passed in the latter case by endorsements to others Bodmereibrief or Biel letter called (Italian Cambio marittimo ) whose individual components, their inclusion could be required to Bodmeristen, were specifically stated in the article 684 of the Commercial Code.

The Bodmereischuld was, if one other provision was not in the Bodmereibrief even made ​​to pay in the port of destination Bodmereireise and on the eighth day after the arrival of the ship in this harbor. From the day of payment to ran from all over the Bodmereischuld including the premium rates to 6 percent. The amount of the premium was left to the discretion of the contracting parts before repeal of the statutory interest rate restrictions because of the risk associated with the Bodmerei.

The Bodmerist had in the rest of the rights of a creditor ship and that he stuck the verbodmeten items solidarity and could not be delivered prior to its satisfaction.

The Bodmereigeber entitled to the realization of his claims action was in rem; only exceptionally stuck the skipper personally and with all of his property, so especially in the case of a so-called deviation, namely, when the skipper the Bodmereireise arbitrarily altered or after its termination exposing the verbodmeten objects of a new Seegefahr.

In addition, the Bodmerist could just stick to the pledged objects for the purpose of his satisfaction. If the journey not begun, so he could claim for reasonable Ristornogebühr. Were verbodmet several times the same objects, so it went, deviating from the rule for other pledges, the later of the previous Verbodmung ago. The Bodmereigeber was not any kind of damage to the load.