Decision ID: 001860
In March 2006 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee recalled that as part of the discovery procedure in connection with the legal action by the Spanish State against the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) before the Federal Court of first instance in New York, ABS had requested the production by the Spanish State of all documents and material forming part of the file of the investigation by the Criminal Court in Corcubión (Spain) into the cause of the incident, as well as all the documents and material reviewed by the Spanish Permanent Commission for the Investigation of Maritime Accidents. It was also recalled that the Spanish State had responded,asserting that the requested documents and material were protected from disclosure by privilege under Spanish procedural law and that in August 2005 the New York Court had denied the Spanish State’s assertion of privilege and ordered the production of the docments. It was also recalled that the Spanish State had submitted a petition to the Criminal Court in Corcubión maintaining that the documents and material could not be provided to ABS and requesting the Court to take a decision on this issue. It was noted that in a decision rendered in September 2005 the Court in Corcubión had decided that these documents and material were privileged to the parties who had joined in the criminal proceedings and should therefore not be made available to ABS.