Decision ID: 001523

In February 2004 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee noted that in January 2004 the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Nantes had rendered a judgement in respect of claims by the owners of two hotels in Nantes. It was noted that the claims had been rejected by the 1992 Fund, since they did not fulfil the Fund’s criteria for admissibility (ie there was not a reasonable degree of proximity between the alleged loss and the pollution) in that it was clear that the hotels were both reliant on business-related visitors for which the incident had no relevance, and although the hotels were also used by tourists, there was no indication of a link between these visitors and the area affected by the incident. The Committee noted that the Court had rejected the claims in the light of the Fund’s criteria, on the grounds that the claimants had not shown a link of causation between the alleged losses and the oil pollution caused by the Erika.