An oil tanker and a fishing vessel collided in the waters of the East China Sea, with both vessels sustaining varying degrees of damage and multiple injuries on board the fishing vessel. How should liability be allocated for salvage costs, repair costs, medical expenses…? How should losses be compensated? The six parties involved in the case were locked in a dispute.
The Shanghai Maritime Court, upholding the philosophy of concluding cases and resolving disputes for the benefit of governance and harmony, actively practiced the new-era maritime “Fengqiao Experience,” ultimately facilitating a package settlement among all six parties to the dispute, effectively reducing the litigation burden on the parties while helping the enterprises involved resume normal production and operations as soon as possible.
Collision accident triggers multi-party disputes
In the early morning of January 2024, on the pitch-black waters of the East China Sea, a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker carrying more than 100,000 tons of crude oil was sailing on its route from Ningbo to Tianjin when it suddenly collided with a Chinese-flagged fishing vessel. The starboard bow shell plating of the tanker sustained localized damage. The fishing vessel’s hull was partially dented, and four people were injured to varying degrees, with three crew members suffering Class 10 disabilities.
At the time of the accident, the two vessels were in a crossing situation, with the tanker as the give-way vessel and the fishing vessel as the stand-on vessel. The tanker had detected the fishing vessel before the two vessels were 5 nautical miles apart, but failed to take early and substantial give-way action to fulfill its obligation as the give-way vessel, nor did it adopt a safe speed and navigate with caution, instead mistakenly assuming that the fishing vessel would pass astern of it. Meanwhile, the working lights on the fishing vessel’s deck impaired normal visual lookout, and the fishing vessel was overly confident that the tanker would take evasive action. In the end, both vessels missed the opportunity to avoid the collision, resulting in the impact. The Pudong Maritime Safety Administration determined that the tanker bore primary liability for the accident, with the fishing vessel bearing secondary liability.
Clear determination of liability facilitates dispute resolution
The collision caused losses to both vessels. The compensation dispute involved six parties: the tanker’s charterer, the fishing vessel’s owner, and four injured crew members of the fishing vessel, with the total claimed losses amounting to several million yuan. The fishing vessel suffered the most severe damage—after colliding with a tanker of over 100,000 tons, not only was its hull breached and crew injured, but its freezing equipment, fish boxes, nets, and other fishing gear also sustained heavy losses.
After the accident, conflicts intensified and trust eroded between the fishing vessel’s owner and the tanker’s charterer during negotiations. The presiding judge proactively communicated repeatedly with the Maritime Safety Administration, the P&I Club, and other relevant departments to thoroughly ascertain the full context of the case and the basis for liability determination, and also meticulously reviewed the substantial evidence submitted by each party, completing the verification of loss details in advance and laying a solid foundation for subsequent mediation.
Both the tanker’s charterer and the fishing vessel’s owner hoped to extricate themselves from the dispute as soon as possible and resume normal production and operations. The fishing vessel’s owner in particular faced urgent repairs to the vessel and equipment, and had already paid substantial medical expenses for the injured crew, placing considerable operational pressure on him. The judge, on the one hand, calmed the fishing vessel owner’s anxiety, and on the other hand, appealed to emotion and reason, repeatedly guiding the parties toward gradual agreement on core issues such as the collision liability apportionment ratio, property losses, and personal injury compensation amounts. Through unremitting efforts, the judge ultimately facilitated a package settlement among all six parties to the dispute, with the tanker side paying 700,000 yuan in settlement funds to the other five parties, and the settlement funds have now been fully paid.
