Decision ID: 003531

In October 2008 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee considered whether the 1992 Fund should take recourse action against the Greek State to recover the amounts that the Fund would have to pay in compensation in respect of the Slops incident. It was recalled the Executive Committee had decided in July 2000 that the Slops was not a ship under the 1992 Civil Liability and Fund Conventions and that the 1992 Conventions did not therefore apply to this incident. It was also recalled that the Greek Supreme Court had however in June 2006 held that the Slops should be regarded as a ‘ship’ as defined in the 1992 Conventions. It was noted that since it had been decided by the Supreme Court that the Slops was a ship, it should have carried insurance as required under Article VII.1 of the 1992 Civil Liability Convention but that the Greek authorities had permitted the Slops to trade without a certificate of insurance in contravention of Article VII.10. It was further noted that the total amount claimed as a result of this incident was well below the estimated limit of liabilty applying to the Slops under Article V of that Convention, that it appeared however that the shipowner was financially incapable of meeting his obligations under the Convention and that as a result the 1992 Fund would have to pay compensation which would have otherwise been covered by the Slops’ insurer and would therefore suffer a loss. It was noted that the Greek State had however acted in accordance with the 1992 Fund’s policy on the definition of ‘ship’. The Exective Committee decided that although it was the 1992 Fund’s policy to take recourse action whenever possible, it would not be appropriate for the Fund to take such action against a State which had in all relevant respects acted in accordance with the Fund’s policy. For this reason, the Committe decided that the Fund should not take recourse action against the Greek State.