Residents in the Solomon Islands are going to court to seek compensation for a catastrophic oil spill from a grounded bulker in 2019.
The Guardian reported that landowners and the government are making the claim against Hong Kong-based shipowner King Trader, insurer Korea P&I, miner Bintan Mining Corp (BMC) and MS Amlin Marine, a Dutch provider of charterer’s liability.
The 73,600-dwt Solomon Trader (built 1994), partially loaded with 11,000 tonnes of bauxite, was stuck for three months in Rennell Bay after being caught in a storm.
More than 70 tonnes of bunker fuel were spilled.
The claim was filed in the Solomons High Court last week, days before the statute of limitations expired, the newspaper said.
“Our way of life changed on the day that ship wrecked on our reef,” Tony Kagovai, the local chief of Lughu Ward in Kangava Bay, and one of the complainants in the case, told The Guardian.
“For six years we have not known whether the fish we are eating are safe to eat, or whether our lands and waters are free of poison. Our community deserves justice for everything we have suffered.”
Islanders said freshwater sources were left undrinkable.
An independent report into the disaster found that spilt oil polluted water and damaged the reef up to 3 km from the grounded vessel. It said the site could take up to 130 years to recover.
King Trader and Korea P&I have apologised, without admitting liability.
Korea P&I said it had not yet been served with any legal action in relation to the disaster. MS Amlin said it could not comment on an ongoing legal matter.
Last July, TradeWinds reported that an English court backed MS Amlin in refusing to pay out on a $47m claim arising from the grounding after the charterer held responsible for the casualty went bust.
A Hong Kong arbitration hearing in 2023, four years after the casualty, found that BMC was liable for damages to the shipowner and Korea P&I.
But the British Virgin Islands-registered mining operation was already insolvent and was wound up within a year of the arbitration ruling, without paying any of the $47m damages.
English law allows for the shipowner and protection and indemnity club to bring a claim instead against the commercial insurer that supplied the charterers’ liability insurance to BMC.
MS Amlin resists claim
But citing a long-standing provision relied on by mutual P&I clubs, MS Amlin said its policy included a clause stating that it would have to refund BMC only if the mining company had first fulfilled its side of the bargain and handed over the $47m in damages.
MS Amlin went to court to ask a judge whether that rule of “pay as may be paid” continued to apply in the case if a claim was made by the shipowner and the P&I club.
The court agreed that it did.
TradeWinds reported in 2019 that the Solomon Trader was removed after three months aground and was taken for scrapping after being declared a constructive total loss.
There were fears of a major pollution incident with 700 tonnes of bunker fuel on board in an environmentally sensitive region.
About one-tenth was estimated to have leaked before a salvage company managed to remove the fuel, seal the hull and refloat the vessel.(Copyright)
