Decision ID: 001638

In March 2005 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee noted that in December 2004 the Commercial Court in Saint-Nazaire had rendered a judgement in respect of a claim by a company in Le Croisic in the Department of Loire Atlantique that let and sold pleasure boats and motors for a reduction in sales in 2000 allegedly due to the incident. It was noted that the Fund had accepted that part of the claim relating to the letting of boats, but had rejected the alleged loss of sales on the grounds that they related to the sales of durable goods which could be deferred following an occurrence such as an oil spill, and that for this reason there was not a sufficient link of causation between the alleged loss and the pollution. The Committee noted that the Court had stated that the losses in respect of sales would not have occurred if the incident had not taken place and that the link between the losses and the event that resulted in the losses had been established. It was noted that the Court had appointed an expert to assess the losses suffered by the claimant as a result of the incident, taking into account the normal developments in the market, and that the Fund had decided not to appeal against the judgement, but to follow the work of the expert.