CDE SA V SURE WIND MARINE LTD (THE "ODYSSEE")

[2015] EWHC 720 (Admlty), Queen's Bench Division, Admiralty Court, Admiralty Registrar Jervis Kay QC, 14 April 2015

Admiralty proceedings - Procedure - Collision - Extension of time - Claimant unaware of existence of two-year time bar for collision liability - Late application to extend- Whether good reason must be shown - Court's discretion - Merchant Shipping Act 1995, section 190(5)

The parties were in negotiations following a collision in April 2011 in Ramsgate Harbour. The claimant had been unaware of the two-year time bar applicable to collision claims and had applied late for an extension of time, after the expiry of the time bar and after the defendant had purported to rely upon it. The parties argued for different tests under section 190 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995: for the claimant, a single-step test that the court was required to "act justly" in accordance with the overriding objective; for the defendant, that the test in The Al Tabith [1995] 2 Lloyd's Rep 336 applied. The judge dismissed the application. The provision in the Merchant Shipping Act reflected the corresponding provision in the Maritime Conventions Act 1911 and the transition from RSC to CPR had not changed its application from a two-stage test requiring good reasons to a single-stage test of acting justly. It was therefore incumbent upon the claimant to establish a "good reason" for an extension of time and it had failed to do so.