Decisión nº: 002439

In October 1994 the 1971 Fund Assembly agreed with the conclusions of the 7th intersessional Working Group on the criteria that it had developed in respect of the admissibility of claims for compensation for ‘pollution damage’ and endorsed the Working Group’s report. The Assembly noted that it was not always possible to lay down firm rules for the admissibility of claims for compensation. The Assembly emphasized that each claim had its own characteristics and that it was necessary, therefore, to consider each claim on the basis of its own merits in the light of the particular circumstances of the case. The Assembly took the view that it was essential that any criteria adopted by the 1971 Fund should allow a certain flexibility, allowing the Fund to take into account new situations and new types of claims. In the view of the Assembly, the pragmatic approach followed by the 1971 Fund so far should be maintained, so as to facilitate out-of-court settlements. The Assembly considered that a uniform interpretation of the definition of ‘pollution damage’ was essential for the functioning of the compensation system established by the Civil Liability Convention and the Fund Convention and that it was essential that, to the extent possible, there should be consistency in the Fund’s decisions as to the admissibility of claims, and that this should be independent of the legal systems of Member States where the damage was caused. The Assembly noted that the Working Group had not been able to draw any conclusions with regard to the admissibility of claims for costs of measures taken to prevent pure economic loss, such as marketing campaigns, which had been paid from funds allocated in the claimant’s normal budget, and whether and, if so, to what extent the Fund should pay compensation for loss of income suffered by employees in certain sea-related activities who had been made redundant or put on part-time work as a result of an incident. The Assembly did not consider it appropriate to take any decision on these issues, but decided that the 1971 Fund should adopt a cautious approach to such claims.