Decision ID: 000835

In October 1997 the 1971 Fund Executive Committee considered the question of the applicability of the 1971 Fund Convention to the incident, which occurred in 1970 (well before the entry into force of the 1971 Fund Convention in Canada in April 1989) with the sinking of the barge Irving Whale in 67 metres of water. It was noted that the barge, which had 3,000 tonnes of oil on board, was subsequently refloated in 1996, that a small spill had occurred during the refloating operation and that the Canadian Government had taken legal action against the owner and the operator of the barge claiming compensation for the cost of the refloating operation, including preparatory work in 1995, and clean-up costs. The Committee decided that the claim did not fall within the scope of application of the 1971 Fund Convention since the lifting of the barge should be considered as being part of the incident which had started with the sinking of the barge in 1970, an ‘incident’ being defined in the Conventions as any occurrence or series of occurrences having the same origin (Article I.8 of the 1969 Civil Liability Convention and Article 1.1 of the 1971 Fund Convention).

Date: 30.09.1997
Category: Application of the Conventions
Subject: Incidents occurring before the entry into force of the Conventions