JENNINGS V TUI UK LTD (T/A THOMSON CRUISES)

[2018] EWHC 82 (Admlty), Queen’s Bench Division, Admiralty Court, Admiralty Registrar Jervis Kay QC, 22 January 2018

Carriage (passengers) – Passenger injured during disembarkation – Meaning of “during the course of carriage” – Fault or neglect of carrier – Athens Convention 1974

The claimant had been on a cruise on the defendant’s vessel and was disembarking in Malaga when he slipped on a wet surface, fell over and suffered injury. The claim was pursued under the Athens Convention 1974, alternatively under the Package Travel Regulations 1992. On the quay there was a “structure” which allowed passengers to disembark from the vessel and walk to the terminal building which was situated on the quay itself but set back from the face of the quay. In response to the claimant’s argument that the claim fell under the Athens Convention, the defendant relied on a proviso in article 1(8): “However, with regard to the passenger, carriage does not include the period during which he is in a marine terminal or station or on a quay or in or on any other port installation” to distinguish between gangways forming part of the ship’s equipment on the one hand, and port installations or quays on the other.