Blame accepted for ship’s loss

Press, 29 July 1989, Page 8

Blame accepted for ship’s loss

NZPA . . Sydney The Baltic Shipping Company, owner of the Soviet cruise ship Mikhail Lermontov, has admitted liability for the ship’s loss and settled its claims against the Marlborough Harbour Board out of court.

In the New South Wales Supreme Court the company yesterday admitted liability for the sinking — indirectly through its engagement of the boad’s chief pilot, Captain Don Jamison, who set the course which put the ship on the rocks at Cape Jackson on February 16, 1986. But some questions of liability remain to be settled in court and Captain Jamison’s position in the litigation is still not settled. The shipping company and its Australian charterer, CTC Cruises — both being sued for damages by 151 Australian passengers — had sought through cross-claims to pass on the balem for the sinking to the Harbour Board and Captain Jamison.

Although the coss-claim against the board has now been dropped — with

both parties agreeing not to disclose the terms of their settlement — a Sydney lawyer for the shipping company, Mr Drew James, conformed that the cross-claim against Captain Jamison was still outstanding. “No decision has been made as to what to do about Captain Jamison,” said Mr James. The New South Wales court has bound Captain Jamison as a party to its proceedings, even though he has not been legally represented since late last year, when his counsel told the court Captain Jamison did not recognise its jurisdiction. The shipping company, through its statement to the court yesterday, alleges that Captain Jamison’s negligence was

primarily responsible for the sinking. The cross-claim, as it

stands against Captain Jamison, includes claims for the passengers, damages claims and for the loss of the ship. Such damages are expected to total more than sAust2o million ($25.6 million). The company’s counsel, Mr Alexander Street, told the court that the pilot’s decision to navigate the ship through a passage between Cape Jackson and Cape Jackson lighthouse “did not accord with good seamanship and therefore was negligent, giving rise to the sinking of the vessel.” The company accepted only “vicarious responsibility” for the negligence. Judge Kenneth Carruthers said the admission of liability left the court to determine the main action of the passengers’ claims against the shipping company and charterer.

He said the vast majority of the passengers had signed release forms, on which the shipping company and charterer were relying for their case. (CTC Cruises had paid the difference of the costs of passengers’ lost baggage and their insurance pay-outs, in return for the passengers releasing the company from further claims. CTC’s payments are understood to have averaged about sAust2ooo ($2636) per passenger). “It will be necessary for me to determine whether the passenger’s intention for the releases to be set aside is valid,” Judge Carruthers said.

The passengers’ counsel, Mr Peter King, said there were trade practice issues at stake with the releases, as well as the question of whether the passengers were entitled to release their insurers’ interests.