National
Legal action by Spain regarding the Prestige disaster fails in the United States
By h.b.
Jan 3, 2008 - 8:38 AM

Legal action by Spain against the ABS, the American Bureau of Shipping, and other affiliated companies, which gave a certificate of seaworthiness for the Prestige oil tanker, has been dismissed by a judge in New York.

Spain was looking for compensation from the companies arguing that they had been negligent, after the tanker sank off the coast of Galicia in 2002 leading to one of the most serious ecological disasters ever suffered by Spain.

The claim was placed before the Federal Court in Manhatten in May 2003, but the ABS said that their guilt was not proven in the case.

The defence also said that the International Convention on Civil Responsibility for Pollution Damage (CLC) which had been signed by Spain, prohibited one country claiming compensation from another in this way, if one of the countries, in this case the United States, had not signed the agreement. The Prestige, was sailing under the Bahamas flag, and the Bahamas also had signed up to the CLC.