General average is a principle of maritime law that requires a shipowner and his clients to share a proportionate amount of the costs associated with salvaging a vessel after a major casualty. The principle of general average dates back to the earliest days of maritime trade and is based on simple capital. General average is probably the oldest of such risk management instruments. The subject of this work is the general average in its theoretical sense, i.e., its role in modern maritime transport. The aim of the paper is to show the implementation of the legislative rules of joint damage on a real example from court practice. By searching the judicial practice, one of the unsolved cases of joint accident was selected and analyzed with the aim of showing the theoretical meanings in practice. The case study was done on the example of one of the largest container ships in the world called Ever Given. On 23 March 2021, while traveling from Tanjung Pelepas, Malaysia to Rotterdam, Netherlands under Captain Krishnan Kanthavel, the ship ran aground in the Suez Canal, blocking the canal for six days. The owner of the ship made an early decision on general average. Although two years have passed, the case is still not solved.