Decision ID: 002103

In June 2007 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee noted a judgement rendered in May 2007 by the Civil Court in Saint Nazaire in respect of a claim by a Co-operative of salt producers in Guérande for commercial loss, loss of image and additional costs as a result of the incident. It was noted that the Fund had considered that production had been possible in 2000, and that since the Co-operative had a stock of salt available sufficient to maintain sales in 2000, the claim was inadmissible. It was noted that the Court, having stated that the Fund’s admissibility criteria were not binding on national courts, had held that the Co-operative could not claim for loss of production but for loss of sales, that its stock of salt had enabled it to maintain sales at the normal level, even without production in 2000, and that therefore it had not demonstrated a commercial loss and for this reason the claim item was rejected. It was noted that as regards the loss of image, the Court had held that the Co-operative’s decision to run a marketing campaign had been a reasonable measure to mitigate loss, which had been effective, and that the Court had granted some of the costs. It was noted that as regards additional costs the Court had accepted costs incurred in minimising pollution damage (monitoring booms, filtration devices and water analyses) and legal costs, but had rejected costs relating to the time spent by salt producers in defending their interests and co-ordinating their activities, which were not directly linked to the Erika incident. The Committee instructed the Director to examine the judgement and to report to the Committee at its October 2007 session with his proposal or decision in respect of lodging an appeal. It was noted that the claimant had appealed against the judgement.