Merchant Shipping (Civil Liability and Compensation for Oil Pollution) Act · 2024 Revised Edition · Part 2
4. Exceptions from liability under section 3
Official textFrom Attorney General's Chambers, unchanged
No liability shall be incurred by the owner of a ship under section 3 by reason of any discharge or escape of oil from the ship, or by reason of any relevant threat of contamination, if he proves that the discharge or escape, or the relevant threat of contamination, as the case may be —
owner
“owner”, in relation to a ship, means the person registered as the owner of the ship or, in the absence of registration, the person owning the ship, except that, in relation to a ship owned by a State which is operated by a person registered in that State as the ship’s operator, it means the person registered as its operator;
resulted from an act of war, hostilities, civil war, insurrection or an exceptional, inevitable and irresistible natural phenomenon;
was due wholly to any thing done or left undone by another person, not being an employee or agent of the owner, with intent to do damage; or
was due wholly to the negligence or wrongful act of a government or other authority in exercising its functions of maintaining lights or other navigational aids for the maintenance of which it was responsible.
Terms defined in this Act
discharge or escape
Defined · s 22“discharge or escape”, in relation to pollution damage, means the discharge or escape of oil from a ship;
oil
Defined · s 2“oil” means any persistent hydrocarbon mineral oil such as crude oil, fuel oil, heavy diesel oil and lubricating oil, whether carried on board a ship as cargo or in the bunkers of ship;
owner
Defined · s 2“owner”, in relation to a ship, means the person registered as the owner of the ship or, in the absence of registration, the person owning the ship, except that, in relation to a ship owned by a State which is operated by a person registered in that State as the ship’s operator, it means the person registered as its operator;
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International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund
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