Jurisdiction in respect of applications to globally limit liability for maritime claims
Mei 2018
The District Court of Rotterdam, as court of the shipowners’/bareboat charterers’ place of business, has accepted jurisdiction to deal with applications to globally limit liability on the basis of the LLMC in respect of a collision between two vessels in Indonesian waters. Jurisdiction was accepted even though legal proceedings regarding the shipowners’/bareboat charterers’ liability for the incident and damage thereby caused, had already been made pending in Norway. The Rotterdam Court has not stayed the Dutch legal proceedings until the Norwegian proceedings will have come to an end.
The decisions confirm that Dutch courts duly consider whether they can accept jurisdiction (also) in limitation of liability proceedings, and that they do not seem inclined to easily consider hurdles too high to prevent them from dealing with ship interested parties’ applications to globally limit liability.
