Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
English Shipping Law
Stephen Girvin*
CASES
172. Collins v Lawrence 1
Carriage of passengers by sea—passenger disembarking and sustaining injury—whether occurring in the course of disembarkation—whether time-barred—Athens Convention 1974
The claimant, C, embarked on a sea fishing trip on a boat, owned by L. On returning to Deal, Kent, the boat was winched onto a shingle beach and C disembarked from a set of freestanding steps onto the shingle. While stepping on to a large plywood board at the foot of the steps, C lost his balance and fell over, over-flexing his left knee joint and rupturing his quadriceps tendon. C claimed damages for personal injury for negligence and breach of the common law duty of care under the Occupiers’ Liability Act 1957.
Article 1.8(a) of the Athens Convention defines “carriage” as “covering the following periods”:
“With regard to the passenger and his cabin luggage, the period during which the passenger and/or his cabin luggage are on board the ship or in the course of embarkation or disembarkation, and the period during which the passenger and his cabin luggage are transported by water from land to the ship or vice-versa, if the cost of such transport is included in the fare or if the vessel used for this purpose of auxiliary transport has been put at the disposal of the passenger by the carrier. However, with regard to the passenger, carriage does not include the period during which he is in a marine terminal or station or on a quay or in or on any other port installation.”
The judge held that, pursuant to the Athens Convention, the disembarkation was not completed until C was safely on the beach. The claim was accordingly time-barred, as it fell outside the two-year limitation period.2 The sole ground of appeal was that the judge was wrong to have found that C had not disembarked from the boat when the accident occurred.
Decision: Appeal dismissed.
* MPA Professor of Maritime Law, Director, Centre for Maritime Law, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. I acknowledge the assistance of Mr Elson Ong, Research Associate, Centre for Maritime Law, in editing the Noter Up.
1. [2017] EWCA Civ 2268; [2018] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 603 (CA: Hamblen LJ); affg [2017] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 13 (CC, Canterbury: HH Judge Simpkiss); noted K Lewins (2017) 23 JIML 95.
2. Art.16.1.
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