Claris Law Legal Blogging Community

Name:

E-mail:

Phone Number:

Zip Code:

Your Question:

Editor: Rod Sullivan
Profession: Maritime Attorney

Category: Cruise Ship Injuries and Accidents

The Egyptian Ferry Al-Salam Boccaccio 98 sank in the early morning hours of Friday, February 3, 2006 and it appears that over 1000 people are dead.

The media is widely reporting that the limitation on liability for passenger deaths will be about US$26,000 per person. However, that figure may be wrong.

Egypt is a signatory to the "Athens Convention Relating to the Carriage of Passengers and Their Luggage by Sea 1974." Saudi Arabia is not. That convention sets the limitation at 46,666 SDR's per passenger. With the SDR currently trading at about 1.44 US$/SDR that gives a limitation of $67,200 or a total liability of $67 million if no more passengers are recovered. The United States is not a signatory to the Convention.

What can account for the difference? There are a number of possibilities. The shipping company may be arguing that the law of Saudi Arabia, and not the Athens Convention governs the limitation issue. The shipping company may have misled the press. The shipping company may be trying to misleed the passengers, their families, and even their lawyers.

American passengers need to beware though. When they book a Royal Caribbean cruise departing from a Mediterranean port, they will likely be subject to the Athens Convention, or the limitation of liability of the country from which the ship departs.