Decision ID: 000023

In April 1999 the 1971 Fund Executive Committee noted that at a hearing in February 1999 the Fund, together with the master, the shipowner and his insurer requested the Criminal Court of Cabimas to appoint a panel of experts to advise the Court on the technical merits of the claim for environmental damage. It was noted that the Fund and the shipwoner’s insurer had also presented to the Court a report by its own experts, which had concluded that the claim had no merit and on the basis of which the Fund and the insurer had taken the view that the claim were inadmissible. In April 1999 the Court appointed a panel of three experts to advise it on the technical merits of the claim by the Republic of Venezuela.