West Indies Alliance Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Jamaica Flour Mills Ltd (Jamaica)

Case •

[1999] UKPC 35

No judgment structure available for this case.
    1. Gilbert caused a tremendous increase in the pressure under the south east corner of the mat foundation. The resultant pressure exceeded any previous pressure that the silos had been exposed to.

      2.  

    2. The pressure caused settlement of the mat on the south east corner.

      3.  

    3. The settlement caused the tilt of the eastern end of the bank of silos towards the southerly direction.

      4.  

    4. The tilt induced ‘twist and torsion’ in the easterly end of the bank of silos where silos 10 and 18 were located.

      5.  

    5. The ‘twist’ caused very large tensile stresses in the junction between silos 10 and 18 bringing the junction close to failure.

      6.  

    6. This caused relatively small additional internal forces to develop which caused the final failure on September 26, 1988 during filling of the silos.

      7.  

    7. The damage caused by Gilbert would have resulted in cracks within the junction at the bottom of the silos which were numerous but narrow and which were at the bottom on the inside surfaces of the curved walls and of the partition and would not have been apparent to the naked eye. This damage would have been caused by the first ‘punch’ of Gilbert.

      8.  

    8. The identified design deficiencies were irrelevant to the cause of failure since the actual strength of the structure at the time of completion of construction was more than adequate to deal with day to day operation of the silos for a period of over 20 years.

      9.  

    9. The silos were well maintained and in fact the structure as a whole would have gained increased strength on completion as a result of the properties of the reinforced concrete which was applied."
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