CHILE Law and Practice Contributed by: Ricardo Rozas, Max Morgan and Stefano Perretta, Jorquiera & Rozas Abogados
Increase of Fruit Cargo Claims In recent years, there has been an increase of fruit cargo claims mainly from Chilean fruit exporters and/or their cargo insurers. There are various reasons for this, including but not lim - ited to the entry of new market players (recovery agents) and some features of the Chilean system that favour cargo interests, such as the Chilean adoption of the Hamburg Rules and the different targets that can be sued. Some of the issues that regularly arise are related to alleged temperature variations and/or damages caused by delay, as well as whether to consider sound market value. In this respect, carriers should always check whether there have been salvage recoveries, as well as their claims-handling obligations under vessel share agreements and other similar agreements (slot charters, etc).
Under Law 20,393, to be exempted from corpo - rate criminal liability, companies must adopt a base crime-prevention model comprising: • the appointment of a crime-prevention officer with sufficient means and attributes for the performance of their duties; • the establishment of a crime-prevention sys - tem; and • the oversight and certification of the crime- prevention model. Law 21,132 has introduced important changes which must be followed carefully. In the case of spills that cause damage to hydro-biological resources, ship-owners operating in Chile are now subject to greater contingencies – not only in terms of administrative penalties but also in connection with criminal liability. Owing to the penalisation of recklessness and mere neg - ligence and to the inclusion of the water spill offence on the list of offences that trigger corpo - rate criminal liability, an increase of criminal pro - ceedings against ship-owners and/or Masters and crew is likely. In this respect, ship-owners should review their internal protocols and crime- prevention models, even though precisely how Chilean courts will consider such models has yet to be tested.
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