The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) has strongly criticised the judgement of the Spanish Supreme Court in the ‘Prestige’ Case at a meeting of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPCF).
The Prestige oil tanker split in half in November 2002 casing one of Europe’s worst-ever environmental disasters.
Over 50,000 tonnes of crude oil were released into the Atlantic off Cape Finisterre.
This ruling over turned the original 2013 decision of a lower Spanish Court which had acquitted both the master and also a Spanish civil servant who had been involved in the decision not to allow the ship into a place of refuge.
The new ruling has found the Master criminally liable for damages to the environment and sentencing him to two years’ imprisonment although this may be suspended.
It further held that the misconduct deprived the shipowner of the right to limit liability for pollution damage under the 1992 Civil Liability Convention (the “CLC”).
It once again acquitted the Spanish civil servant.
These decisions were made in just one day with out hearing any new evidence and in the abseince of the Master.
ICS have stressed that their immediate concern on the judgment is the implication of this on the unwarranted criminalisation of seafarers.
“The Supreme Court’s decision was extremely surprising in that it overturned a lower court’s acquittal of the Master, in his absence, and without hearing any new evidence as to his knowledge about the condition of the ship. This raises fundamental questions as to whether it was a fair trial.” said the ICS statement
ICS told the IOPCF meeting. “ The decision also seems entirely unbalanced, applying different standards when assessing the blameworthiness of the Master to those applied to government officials on shore, whose decisions were exonerated by the Supreme Court.”
ICS also noted that this decision may now also be used to break the shipowner’s right to limit its financial liability under the CLC.
It is of great concern to ICS that the amounts then claimed would far outstrip those limits.
These limits of liability are the essential quid pro quo for shipowners for agreeing a strict liability under the CLC regime.
However, under the CLC the right to the limits may be broken if it can be shown that the shipowner acted “recklessly and with knowledge that the damage would probably result”.
ICS says that the actions by the Spanish government to pursue its claims against the shipowner, for what are expected to be enormous amounts in excess of the shipowner’s limits of liability, could seriously undermine the system of shared liability that has been agreed under the CLC/Fund liability and compensation regime.
ICS therefore appealed to all Member States of the IOPC Funds to do their utmost to protect and support the system which has worked very well over the past decades, and which should not be sacrificed for the interests of individual countries. “The whole regime is based on co-operation and trust between the shipping industry, the oil industry and governments” said ICS it its statement to the IOPCF.
The ICS states that it “fears that that the entire system of efficient compensation for oil spills could be put in serious jeopardy because of unsound decisions being made by national courts.”
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