 Total
knew it was at risk, papers latch onto modern shipping practices.
Seven years after the event, the trial of those accused of the
responsibility for the sinking of the tanker ERIKA began in Paris
yesterday (Monday 12th February)
A case that will attract feverish media attention is likely to also
attract the critics of modern shipping practices. For example the
Independent gets into its stride with the following paragraph:
The ageing and rusting ship, which
split in two off off Britanny, on 12 December 1999, was Japanese-built,
Italian-owned and controlled by two Liberian companies. The Erika was
crewed by Indians, sailing under a Maltese flag, chartered by a shipping
company registered in the Bahamas for a French oil company.
Those accused include her captain Karun Mathur, but when called (the first
defendant to be called) there was no response, neither was there a
response to Jean-Baptiste Parlos, the court resident, asking for his
representative.
All defendants are charged with causing pollution and endangering human
life.
A number of accusations were made for each defendant. Total is accused of
chartering the vessel despite the fact that their own vetting system's
approval of the vessel had expired and they had gone ahead with charter in
a negligent manner, with no proper inspection of the vessel's soundness.
They are also accused of withholding information from the French
authorities regarding the vessel's previous difficulties. Total say they
chartered the vessel in good faith and that corrosion was only discovered
after the disaster
The ship's classification society Rena is also accused of negligence, that
they badly supervised earlier repairs to the vessel.
Meanwhile the ship's owner Giuseppe Savarese is accused of obtaining
certification under false pretences.
The legal grounds of the case being held in France were contested as the
trial opened, with defendants claiming that as the ERIKA sank outside
French waters, a French court had no jurisdiction.
The trial is expected to last until June and cost $1 million. It has been
dubbed Europes' "EXXON VALDEZ" by Francois Patsouris, the
vice-president of the regional council of Poitou-Charentes in western
France, saying:
"We are at an absolute turning point today, This case has to set a
precedent. In the US, there was the Exxon Valdez case. We have to have the
same thing in Europe. Otherwise, maritime law will not advance."
France is seeking $199 million in damages from Total. The oil giant posted
sales of over $43 billion in the last quarter of 2006.
The ERIKA disaster and the PRESTIGE sinking that followed in 2002 prompted
the acceleration of the regulations banning single hull oil tankers.
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