Club events in London, Singapore and New Jersey this month have sought to bring insight and understanding to Members on a variety of professional and operational subjects. This week saw the 34th celebration of World Maritime Day taking the theme: "Piracy: orchestrating the response". The IMO aim to highlight the efforts made to meet the challenges of modern-day piracy to the wider public, as well as guiding operators toward best practice in prevention.
This theme was the first subject addressed by the Thomas Miller Americas Bodily Injury Seminar which took place on the 17th & 18th September. Its programme addressed specific litigation and P&I cover issues in respect of piracy followed by sessions on criminal and civil issues from an investigating attorney's point of view and best practice in deposition.
This seminar traditionally provides much of the material for the subsequent TMA Bodily Injury News publication. Members can expect the next issue to arrive in the month before Christmas.
The annual Insight course, run by Club managers Thomas Miller for all its transport club Members, was held this week in the Thomas Miller London offices.
Aimed at executives and managerial staff either in the early stages of their careers or without specialist insurance or claims experience it provides practical guidance through lectures and interactive workshops. Cargo claims, personal injury claims, charterparty issues and dealing with collisions, pollution and dock damage are among the topics.
In Singapore, this week a combined presentation with the UK Defence Club gave Members an overview of issues relating to cargo liquefaction and 'virtual arrival' as well as an insight into future risk management techniques for ship operators.
Statutory time bars are governed by the Statute of Limitations Act 1957 as amended by the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991 and 2000. The statutory limitation periods cannot be extended by agreement. The issue of whether a claim is statute-barred is however a defence that must be raised by a Defendant once proceedings are issued. A court will not consider this issue on its own volition. A defendant may be estopped from relying upon the Statute of Limitations as a defence if their conduct renders it unjust to permit them to do so.
The UK P&I Club, a leading provider of P&I insurance and other services to the international shipping community, has appointed Tom Starr as a Senior Claims Executive, who will be based in the Thomas Miller London offices.
The German Civil Code provides a general 3 years time bar period which applies to contractual as well as to statutory claims. If a damage or a personal injury is latent long-stop dates of up to 30 years apply.
Members will recall that substantial increases in the liability limits set by the 1976 London Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims (LLMC) as amended by the 1996 LLMC Protocol, were agreed by the IMO Legal Committee in 2012.
