HC Deb 23 July 1958 vol 592 cc598-601

Lords Amendment: After Amendment last inserted, insert new Clause "D": —(1) Where a ship or other property is arrested in connection with a claim which appears to the court to be founded on a liability to which a limit is set by section five hundred and three of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, or security is given to prevent or obtain release from such an arrest, the court may, and in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (3) of this section shall, order the release of the ship, property or security, if the conditions specified in subsection (2) of this section are satisfied; but where the release is ordered the person on whose application it is ordered shall be deemed to have submitted to the jurisdiction of the court to adjudicate on the claim (or, in Scotland, to have prorogated that jurisdiction). (2) The said conditions are—

  1. (a) that security which in the opinion of the court is satisfactory (in this section referred to as "guarantee") has previously been given, whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, in respect of the said liability or any other liability incurred on the same occasion and the court is satisfied that, if the claim is established, the amount for which the guarantee was given or such part thereof as corresponds to the claim will be actually available to the claimant; and
  2. (b) that either the guarantee is for an amount not less than the said limit or further security is given which, together with the guarantee, is for an amount not less than that limit.
(3) The circumstances mentioned in subsection (1) of this section are that the guarantee was given in a port which, in relation to the claim, is the relevant port (or, as the case may be, a relevant port) and that that port is in a Convention country. (4) For the purposes of this section—
  1. (a) a guarantee given by the giving of security in more than one country shall be deemed to have been given in the country in which security was last given;
  2. (b) any question whether the amount of any security is (either by itself or together with any other amount) not less than any limit set by section five hundred and three of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, shall be decided as at the time at which the security is given;
  3. (c) where part only of the amount for which a guarantee was given will be available to a claimant that part shall not be taken to correspond to his claim if any other part may be available to a claimant in respect of a liability to which no limit is set as mentioned in subsection (1) of this section.
 (5) In this section— Convention country" means any country in respect of which the Convention is in force (including any country to which the Convention extends by virtue of Article 14 thereof); relevant port"—
  1. (a) in relation to any claim, means the port where the event giving rise to the claim occurred or, if that event did not occur in a port, the first port of call after the event occurred; and
  2. (b) in relation to a claim for loss of life or personal injury or for damage to cargo, includes the port of disembarkation or discharge.
 the Convention" means the International Convention relating to the Limitation of the Liability of Owners of Seagoing Ships signed in Brussels on the tenth day of October, nineteen hundred and fifty-seven (6) If Her Majesty by Order in Council declares that any country specified in the Order is a Convention country within the meaning of this section, the Order shall, while in force, be conclusive evidence that the country is a Convention country; but any Order in Council under this section may be varied or revoked by a subsequent Order in Council. (7) In the application of this section to Scotland the references to arrest shall be construed as referring to arrestment on the dependence of an action or in rem and for the references to release from arrest or to the ordering of such a release there shall be substituted references to the recall of an arrestment.

Mr. Neave

I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.

The Clause contains what are perhaps the most complex provisions of the Bill. It relates to the release of a ship in certain circumstances. It is designed to prevent ships being arrested, or security having to be given, more than once in respect of the same occurrence. It lays down certain conditions which have to be fulfilled if the court is to be empowered to release a ship or security. These conditions are intended to protect the interest of the claimant by ensuring that a full and proper proportion of the security which has been already given elsewhere is actually available to him.

Sir F. Soskice

This new Clause again, as I understand, is to give further effect to the Convention. The only question that I want to put is one that is analogous to that which I put on the previous proposed new Clause. Having regard to the complexity of the matter I will not develop it, but I will put the question shortly in this way. The noble Lord Lord Merriman in another place was concerned with certain aspects of the Clause and felt somewhat uncertain about how it might work out in the circumstances which he described. I ask whether—and I assume that it is the case—the Government have fully considered the doubts raised by the noble Lord and are satisfied that the Clause in the present form meets the difficulties to which he gave expression.

Mr. Neave

I have read the noble Lord Lord Merriman's speech and it has been considered by those concerned with the Bill in my Department. A number of conditions are now laid down as a result of consultation at the time when Lord Merriman made his speech. They have to be fulfilled before a ship can be released. There is a fourth condition, which I did not mention earlier. If that, too, is fulfilled the court will be obliged to release the ship or security, and there is further protection for claimants in the provision at the end of subsection (1). We took into account everything that Lord Merriman said on the point.

Question put and agreed to.