Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
SOME LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE AMOCO CADIZ INCIDENT*
Bernard A. Dubais
Director, Law Department, Compagnie Francaise des Petroles.
The French Government’s initiative to file suit in the United States against Amoco International Oil Co. instead of proceeding in France against Amoco Transport, the shipowner, has raised doubts and misgivings in the legal profession. This embarrassment was not the least helped by the numerous Press reports and comments which, indeed, have added to the confusion.
Our purpose will be to try and clarify the issue by formulating some of the questions that come to mind, and suggesting tentative answers.
Question: 1. What is the status of litigation in France and in the U.S.?
Answer: (a) In France, two distinct penal proceedings are currently pending against the shipmaster. But no civil action for damages has been instituted so far against Amoco Transport, the responsible shipowner.
This is, of course, the main puzzle. The reason is that the French Government had clearly expressed its opinion in a memorandum submitted, on Apr. 27, 1978, to representatives from the owner, its insurer and the CRISTAL organisation, that the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage of Nov. 29, 1969, (CLC), duly ratified by France and Liberia, applied exclusively to the incident.
Nevertheless, Amoco Transport and its insurer have spontaneously constituted a limitation fund of approximately $16.8 million with the competent commercial tribunal in Brest, in pursuance of art. V-3 of CLC, thus inviting the filing of claims in France. It has been argued since that this deposit is not valid because art. V-3 requires that the fund be constituted with the court
“in which action is brought under Article IX”
and no such action has been commenced in the Brest tribunal. But, clearly, such an argument is without merit as the tribunal, in accepting jurisdiction, has made a reasonable interpretation of CLC, and its decision has not been challenged.
(b) In the U.S. (see “The Times”, Nov. 13, 1978) several actions have been taken by a large number of various claimants for damages in excess of $1.7 billion. In this paper, however, we will concentrate on the civil action brought by France, in the U.S. District Court in New York City, against Amoco International and its manager for marine operations. This initial action in New York has now been transferred to the U.S. District Court in Chicago where defendants have instituted a proceeding for exoneration from or limitation of liability in accordance with U.S. maritime law.1
That complaint was filed in September, 1978, for damages assessed at $300 million which, incidentally, represent almost three times the expenditures borne by the French
* These comments are based on a paper presented at a Conference on “Collision at Sea: salvage and pollution” organised in London on Mar. 13–14, 1979, by the School of Business and Industrial Management.
1 This contention has been denied by Judge Frank McGarr who ruled, on Apr. 17, 1979, that only the Liberian owner of the ship, Amoco Transport Co., could be entitled to limitation of liability under U.S. law.
292