Arbitration clause prevails where liability is disputed, and a party cannot finally decide its own breach or negligence claim.

A contractual clause allowing the administration to treat its decision as final could not conclusively determine whether the manning agent had committed wilful omission, neglect, or negligence where liability was disputed. Such a reading would offend the rule of law and the principle that no party can be a judge in its own cause. Clause 3.20 was read harmoniously with the broad arbitration clause and could operate only where liability was admitted and the administration merely quantified recovery. Because the claim was contested, the dispute remained within the arbitration clause, was not an excepted matter, and was subject to independent adjudication.

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Issues: Whether a contractual clause empowering the administration to treat its decision as final and barring court or arbitral challenge could exclude adjudication where the manning agent disputed liability, and whether the dispute was an excepted matter outside the arbitral tribunal's jurisdiction.

Analysis: Clause 3.20 could not be read to permit one contracting party to conclusively decide whether the other had committed wilful omission, neglect, or negligence when liability itself was in dispute. Such an interpretation would offend the rule of law and the principle that no party can be a judge in its own cause. The clause had to be read harmoniously with the broad arbitration clause, and the restrictive language in Clause 3.20 could operate only in cases where liability was admitted and the administration merely quantified recovery. In a contested claim, the dispute fell within the arbitration clause and was not an excepted matter. A construction that shut out both court and arbitral remedy would also create an impermissible vacuum in legal remedies.

Conclusion: The dispute was arbitrable, the administration could not finally determine disputed liability, and the award was not without jurisdiction.

Ratio Decidendi: A contractual term cannot make one party the final judge of disputed breach or liability, and where liability is contested a broadly worded arbitration clause will prevail so that the dispute remains subject to independent adjudication.

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