Decision ID: 001862

In March 2006 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee noted that 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 filed a motion for a summary judgement arguing that it was an agent or servant of the shipowner and that therefore in accordance with Article III.4(a) of the 1992 Civil Liability Convention no claim for compensation for pollution damage could be made against it unless the damage resulted from ABS’s personal act or omission, committed with intent to cause such damage, or recklessly and with knowledge that such damage would probably result. It was further noted that ABS had also maintained that since the United States was not a contracting State to the Civil Liability Convention and the pollution damage had occurred in Spain, the United States Courts were not competent to hear the case.