Further evidence that English courts are taking a thoroughly pragmatic line with commercial exemption clauses comes from Sir Jeremy Cooke’s decision a few days ago in the shipbuilding case of Star Polaris LLC v HHIC-PHIL Inc [2016] EWHC 2941 (Comm). A vessel under guarantee suffered engine failure, found to be partly due to construction defects which were the yard’s responsibility. In the light of this finding the yard’s liability for the cost of rectification was not in issue, this being expressly allowed under the terms of its builder’s guarantee. What was disputed was a further claim by the buyers for a residual diminution in value of the vessel allegedly caused by the construction problems. The building was under the venerable SAJ form, which had it been left unaltered would under Art.IX have answered the question unequivocally in the yard’s favour (“The guarantee contained as hereinabove … replaces and excludes…