Ruling on recovery of $5 million from ship owner for oil spill repealed
According to court orders, the Fifth Commercial Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court’s ruling to collect 329.1 million rubles (about $5 million) from Rostorg Company, for damage to the environment resulting from an oil spill near the island of Sakhalin.
What happened?
On 8th November 2015, Tanker Nadezhda, which is owned by Rostorg Company was exploited by DV-Akvatoriya Company and stranded near the Nevelsk seaport.
The vessel’s hull suffered damage leading to an oil spill.
Administrative investigation:
The Pacific Maritime Administration of the Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resource Usage (Rosprirodnadzor) has carried out an administrative investigation into the incident establishing all relevant facts.
After the spill, the local authorities introduced the emergency regime.
The spill clean-up activities took 30 hours, the time, Rosprirodnadzor experts believe, constituting the period of exposure of a water body to harmful effects of pollution.
In late 2016, the Sakhalin Regional Commercial Court ruled in favour of Rosprirodnadzor and recovered compensation from Rostorg. However, the court dismissed a claim against DV-Akvatoriya.
Judgement overruled:
The court held that oil products spilled in the water due to a fault on the part of the defendant had a direct toxic effect on water resources; therefore, individuals and corporate entities causing harm to the environment in contravention of the relevant legislation are responsible for complete indemnification against the damage done.
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Source: Russian Legal Information Agency
