Incident News – Latest Court Decisions and developments

Posted: 14/02/2013
Categories: News – Incidents

Hebei Spirit On 22 January 2013 a judgement was rendered by the Seosan District Court granting KRW 736 billion in compensation to victims of the Hebei Spirit incident. The amount decided by the Court is significantly less than the amount claimed in court (some KRW 4 227 billion) but nevertheless is significantly larger than the 1992 Fund’s assessment of admissible claims of KRW 181 billion. The 1992 Fund appealed on 5 February 2013, within the 2 week deadline, on a number of issues contained in the 178 pages, plus appendixes, which form the judgement. The Secretariat continues to examine the details of the judgement with its Korean lawyers and will report on the matter to the 1992 Fund Executive Committee at its next session in April 2013. Volgoneft 139 The hearing of the Court of Cassation on 23 January 2013 declined the 1992 Fund’s petition to postpone the hearing and proceeded to consider the merits of the appeals which had been submitted against its previous judgement.
The 1992 Fund had appealed on three issues namely the quantum awarded to the claimants, the application of interest and the ‘insurance gap’. The appeals were rejected and the Court renewed the procedure of execution (enforcement) of the judgement.
A further court session was held on 12 February 2013 to consider a petition by a claimant to include additional claimed costs. However, that hearing was postponed since the details of the claim had not been shared with all parties. A further session has been scheduled for 26 February 2013 where this, and a petition to suspend execution by the shipowner’s insurer, will be considered. Prestige The Audiencia Provincial (Criminal Court) in La Coruña commenced hearings on 16 October 2012 dealing with both the criminal and civil liabilities arising from the incident. The oral hearings have focused to date on witnesses associated with the criminal liabilities. Proceedings are expected to continue until June 2013 and witnesses for the civil liabilities are expected to be called from May 2013 onwards.
The 1992 Fund continues to monitor the proceedings and in due course its experts will provide evidence to the Court.

← Previous article→ Next article

View by Category

External Relations

View a map of the events attended by the Secretariat in recent years