Decision ID: 003655

In October 2009 the 1992 Fund Executive Committee recalled that in February 2008 the Arbitration Court in Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region had issued a ruling declaring that the limitation fund had been established by means of a letter of guarantee issued by the shipowner’s insurer Ingosstrakh for 3 million Special Drawing Rights (SDR). It was recalled that the 1992 Fund had appealed against the decision and that the Fund had presented pleadings to the Court of Appeal arguing inter alia that the current limit of the shipowner’s liability under the 1992 Civil Liability Convention was 4.51 million SDR and that, as under the Russian constitution international conventions to which the Russian Federation was a party took precedence over Russian internal law, the Arbitration Court’s ruling establishing the shipowner’s limitation fund should be amended. It was also recalled that the Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation had dismissed the 1992 Fund’s appeal confirming the ruling by the Arbitration Court. It was noted that at a hearing in September 2009 the Arbitration Court had stated that in its opinion, even though the amendments to the limitation amounts under the 1992 Civil Liability Convention and the 1992 Fund Convention which had entered into force on 1 November 2003 had subsequently been officially published in the Russion Federation and therefore were officially part of Russian national law, it would not be appropriate to alter the limit of the shipowner’s liability.