The High Court has ruled that a Dublin port pilot’s personal injury claim falls within the maritime limitation provision in section 46(2) of the Civil Liability Act 1961, although the incident did not involve a collision between vessels.
Mr Justice Brian J. McGovern delivered the judgment on 28 October 2016, following a trial of preliminary issues. The court held that the claim was not time-barred and that the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 did not apply to it.
The plaintiff, Robert Kieran, says he fell into the sea on 15 November 2011 while leaving a pilot boat belonging to Dublin Port Company and boarding the M/S “Johanna Desiree”. He alleges the vessels were navigated negligently and that the pilot ladder became fouled, causing him to lose his grip. The judgment records that there was no suggestion the pilot boat collided with the vessel.
Dublin Port Company argued that section 46(2) required a collision between vessels and that the injured person had to be aboard one of them. The plaintiff submitted that a collision was not necessary. The section sets a two-year period for certain claims involving a vessel’s fault and injury to a person on board a vessel.
The judge accepted that the injured person must have been on board one of two or more vessels, but rejected the argument that an actual collision was required. He said the section’s text did not use the word “collision” and could cover an injury where there was interaction between vessels and fault by one or more of them. He also considered that requiring a collision would create an anomalous result alongside the Collision Convention of 1952, which applies in some circumstances even when no actual collision occurs.
The court ruled that the claim came within section 46(2). It found the claim had been brought within that section’s two-year period, so the Statute of Limitations 1957, as amended, did not bar it. The judge also ruled that the Personal Injuries Assessment Board legislation did not apply to the claim.
The judgment addressed preliminary issues only. It did not determine whether the alleged negligence occurred or decide the underlying personal injury claim.