containers

Concentration of shipping disputes at the Court of Rotterdam

Recently, the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice published a draft bill, which provides for further concentration of the handling of shipping cases. Once this bill is adopted by parliament, court cases on shipping and shipping-related matters will all be handled by the Court of Rotterdam.

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Increase of the limits of the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims as of 8 June 2015

The Netherlands is one of the State Parties to the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims and its Protocol of 1996 (after this: LLMC). The provisions of the LLMC grant the ship owners (and other parties mentioned) the right to limit their liability for certain specified claims by constituting one or more limitation funds. The Netherlands has implemented the LLMC in articles 8:750 u/i 8:759 of the Dutch Civil Code.

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Legal proceedings in English before the Rotterdam District Court

The Rotterdam District Court informed us as follows. As of January 1st 2016 the Rotterdam District Court will allow certain types of civil cases to be conducted in the English language. The cases that will qualify for this pilot project are those involving maritime law, transport law and international sale of goods.

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New Maritime Accident Control Act

On 1 January 2016, the new Dutch Maritime Accident Control Act (Wet bestrijding maritieme ongevallen, WBMO), entered into force. The new act replaces the North Sea Accident Control Act (Wet bestrijding ongevallen Noordzee, Wet BON) and provides for the implementation of the Nairobi International Convention on the Removal of Wrecks (2007) in the legislation of the Netherlands.

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Should damage be calculated based on the concrete or abstract way after a bridge has been hit by a vessel?

In recent years it occurred several times that a ship collided into a bridge of which it was known that it would be replaced in the nearby future. For example the Dorkwerderbrug near Groningen has been hit several times in the past years. Also the Botlekbrug has recently been hit by a vessel. The building of the new Dorkwerderburg will be finalised at the end of 2015. The new Botlekbrug is already in use. In case such a bridge that is about to be replaced is hit by a ship, the question arises whether the owner of the bridge can claim payment of the costs that will be made in case the bridge would be permanently repaired or whether instead in view of the building of the new bridge only payment can be claimed of the costs made to temporarily repair the bridge.

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The Supreme Court on the limitation period for collisions: the story continues ...

The rules on the limitation period for collisions has already lead to many discussions. A recent decision of the Supreme Court will undoubtedly lead to many new discussions (HR November 21, 2014, ECLI:NL:HR:2014:3350). The Supreme Court has held that the limitation period of two years for collisions does not apply if the accusations made by claimant are of a different nature than those associated with the use of ships and when the cause of the damage is not on board of a ship.

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Will a consignee become a party to the contract of carriage, if he is mentioned as consignee on a Sea Waybill?

In relation to the majority of the cargo that in the past was carried by ship, a Bill of Lading would be issued by the carrier. Therefore, Book 8 of the Dutch Civil Code contains several articles that relate to carriage of goods under a Bill of Lading. However, nowadays in case of the majority of the shipments that concern carriage of goods by ship no Bill of Lading is issued, but instead a Sea Waybill. The question is therefore what the consequences are if goods are carried under a Sea Waybill for the title to sue of the consignee and the relation between the carrier and the consignee. The Court of Rotterdam had to consider this in the recent Court case FRIO HELLENIC, 30 April 2014, S&S 2014, 131. Below we will touch on this question by discussing the judgment of the Court. In that respect we will first briefly touch on the characteristics of a Bill of Lading and Sea Waybill.

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