CHILE Law and Practice Contributed by: Ricardo Rozas, Max Morgan and Stefano Perretta, Jorquiera & Rozas Abogados
burden of proving that they, their staff or their agents adopted all measures that could reason - ably be required to avoid the cause of loss or damage and the consequences thereof. Regarding limitation in connection with contracts of carriage of goods by sea, Chilean law draws a distinction between lost or damaged goods and delayed goods. In the former case, the car - rier’s liability is limited to an amount equal to 835 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) per package or other shipping unit, or 2.5 SDR per kilogram of gross weight, if the latter is higher. In the case of delayed goods, the carrier’s liability is limited to an amount equivalent to 2.5 times the freight payable for the goods delayed, but not exceed - ing the total sum of the freight payable under the respective contract of carriage by sea. It is worth noting that the above rules do not compromise either the interests arising from the value of the damaged goods or the judicial costs. 3.4 Misdeclaration of Cargo Under the Chilean adoption of the Hamburg Rules, the shipper is subject to a general rule that they are not liable for loss sustained by the carrier or the actual carrier, or for damage sus - tained by the ship, unless such loss or damage was caused by the fault or neglect of the ship - per, their staff or their agents; nor is any servant or agent of the shipper liable for such loss or damage unless the loss or damage was caused by fault or neglect on their part. In addition, the shipper is subject to further special rules on dan - gerous goods. 3.5 Time Bar for Filing Claims for Damaged or Lost Cargo Under Chilean maritime law, the general principle is that any action relating to maritime disputes is time-barred after two years. Actions relating to passage contracts, freight, general average and
contributions are time-barred within six months. In addition, in the case of collision actions, the two-year period is extended to three years if the responsible vessel was not arrested or detained while in Chilean jurisdictional waters, provided that the vessel abandoned them without calling at a Chilean port after the collision. As to time extensions, under Chilean maritime law the running of the corresponding limitation period can be interrupted by a declaration in writing to the claimant by the person to whom the limitation period applies. This can be done successively, but the corresponding period shall run again as of the date of the last declaration. 4. Maritime Liens and Ship Arrests 4.1 Ship Arrests Chile has not ratified any international conven - tion regarding the arrest of ships. However, the fundamental regulations applicable to ship arrest found in Book III, Title VIII, paragraph 5 of the Code of Commerce, About the Procedure to Arrest Vessels and Their Release (Article 1231 et seq) are loosely based on the principles set forth under the International Convention Relat - ing to the Arrest of Sea-Going Ships (Brussels, 10 May 1952). Under Chilean law, a vessel may be arrested if the requesting party has a credit that entitles it to do so. These credits may be of two types – namely: • privileged credits as set forth by Articles 844, 845 and 846 of the Code of Commerce; or • credits other than those mentioned in the first point above.
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