Trial Judge Jean-Baptiste Parlos,Paris Tribunal De Grande Instance

Erika judgment 16 January 2008

Trial judge Jean-Baptiste Parlos,Paris Tribunal de Grande Instance

Investigating magistrate Dominique de Talancé

Erika timeline (from TradeWinds)

• 12 December 1999 The 37,000-dwt Erika (built 1975) breaks in two and sinks in Bay of Biscay off France, spilling 20,000 tonnes of oil. Clean-up begins.
• 2000 Secondary cleaning continues
• 14 March 2000 Nantes court opens limitation proceedings at request of shipowner Tevere Shipping. Amount set at EUR 12.84m ($18.96m).
• June to September 2000 Removal of oil from two sections of wreck – funded by charterer Total. Tanker masters face tougher French penalties for oil dumping
• July 2000 IOPCF decides fund payments should be limited to 50% of losses suffered by claimants. New ship reporting scheme for English Channel in wake of disaster
• September 2000 Flag state Malta issues report into sinking, blaming corrosion, cracking and local failure, vulnerabilities in the design of the ship, and the prevailing sea conditions
• Spring 2001 Clean up of residual contamination begins
• June 2001 IOPCF increases payment limit to 60%
• November 2001 Secondary clean-up completed at Morbihan islands and Loire Atlantique
• 2002 Limitation fund transferred from Nantes to Rennes.
• 11 December 2002 IOPCF brings civil action against shipowner and Total, as well as Bureau Veritas, which had inspected Erika before the handover to RINA
• April 2003 IOPCF increases limit to 100% of losses
• December 2003 Charterer Total’s efforts to dispose of recovered waste completed at cost of EUR 46m. IOPCF makes EUR 10.1m payment to French government for tourism claims
• October 2004 IOPCF hands over further EUR 6m to French for fisheries claims.
• December 2004 EU to sue UK, Greece and eight other countries for failing to introduce safety legislation adopted after Erika
• November 2005 French court panel finds thickness of Erika’s steel structures below permissible level when class society RINA took over the ship
• December 2005 IOPCF makes another EUR 15m for clean-up costs
• 2006 Limitation fund moved to Saint-Brieuc
• March 2006 Erika trial date set for October 2006
• October 2006 IOPCF makes another EUR 10m payment to France for clean-up operations
• 31 December 2006 Out-of-court settlements reached with 440 claimants against shipowner, IOPCF and Steamship Mutual
• 13 February 2007 Erika trial begins in France
• May 2007 Erika master Karun Mathur reportedly set to sue RINA
• June 2007 Erika trial ends
• 16 January 2008 Verdicts