COLOMBIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Javier Franco, Franco & Abogados Asociados
5. Passenger Claims 5.1 Laws and Conventions Applicable to the Resolution of Passenger Claims Colombia has not ratified the Athens Convention relating to the Carriage of Passengers and their Luggage by Sea and/or its protocol. Only certain specific provisions in the Colombian Commer - cial Code deal with the subject, in a very general way. Articles 1585–1596 provide some rules for dealing with the liability of the carrier in cases of the cancellation of the trip, or its delay or inter - ruption due to force majeure causes. For instance, Article 1592 establishes that, in the event of the cancellation of the trip, a claim for compensation would proceed unless the car - rier is able to prove the “extraneous cause” (ie, an institution similar to force majeure), in which case the carrier would only need to give back the amount received as the price paid by the pas - senger. Moreover, the provision goes on to state that, if there is a justified motive for cancelling the trip, the carrier’s compensation would not be in an amount in excess of double the price paid by the passenger. Article 1596 also provides some guidance regarding the liability of the carrier regarding loss and/or damage of luggage, thereby pro - viding that the carrier’s liability would be up to the declared value of the luggage; if there is no such declaration, it would be up to 10 grams of pure gold per kilo, unless force majeure is actu - ally proven. However, it clarifies that the carrier would not be responsible for looting if the lug - gage had not been properly secured/closed. The time bar for the submission of any action against the carrier was not provided in this set of rules but, due to a remission contained in the Code, a provision from the general contract of
tion of the judicial sale to be effected to certain specific persons, at least 30 days in advance. However, Article 1454 of the Colombian Com - mercial Code points out only that the judicial sale of a ship will follow the parameters set out in the General Procedural Code, and that the sale will be announced with notices located in visible parts of the ship and in the respective harbour master’s office. 4.11 Insolvency Laws Applied by Maritime Courts Colombia has a regulation that is analogous to Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, contained in Law 116 of 2006. From the perspective of this regulation, the debtor that is carrying out an insolvency procedure would not be able to provide warranties outside the insol - vency procedure. Moreover, a court other than the one carrying out the insolvency procedure would not be in a position to order the judicial sale of the vessel. 4.12 Damages in the Event of Wrongful Arrest of a Vessel There are no clear cases that address this issue. However, at least theoretically, compensation could be ordered under specific circumstances, since Article 51 of Decision 487 provides that the courts of the country in which the “arrest” has been effected would be competent to decide on the liability of the creditor regarding damages caused as a consequence – in particular, but not exclusively, for the arrest being held to be illicit or unjustified, or for requesting excessive secu - rity (thereby mirroring what is provided in Article 6.2 of the International Convention on Arrest of Ships, 1999).
140 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook