Based on the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims (LLMC) 1976, as amended by the 1996 Protocol,
as incorporated into the Sixteenth Schedule of the Malaysian Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1952, given effect by s 360 of the Act. Limits reflect current Peninsular Malaysian and Labuan laws.
For salvors not operating from a ship or solely on the casualty, tonnage is deemed 1,500 GT (Art. 6(3)).
Calculation Result:
Cases:
Summaries of cases. The cases are generally on LLMC decided by the UK courts, following the law, limits, the version of LLMC, and domestic modifications to it, applicable there at that time. They will be relevant in the context of Peninsular Malaysia, but caution must be exercised in relying on them for Peninsular Malaysia, as some aspects of the law of Peninsular Malaysia would differ from the English law. They are only for purposes of learning the general principles, and not to determine any specific law or limit.
Important Notes:
All references to “Art.” below are the Articles of the 1976 Convention, unless the context otherwise states. All references to “Schedule” are to the 16th Schedule of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance 1952 (MSO 1952), unless the context otherwise states.
The MSO 1952 was originally applicable only to Peninsular Malaysia, and was subsequently extended to apply to Labuan by ss 12 and 13 of the Merchant Shipping (Amendment and Extension) Act 2007, which came into force on 24 December 2008.
Prior to the amendments to s 360 made by Merchant Shipping (Amendment and Extension) Act 2011 (s 5 there), which came into force on 1 March 2014, the law and limits applicable in Peninsular Malaysia/Labuan was similar to that applicable in Sabah and Sarawak, both based s 503 UK Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (as amended by Merchant Shipping (Liability of Shipowners and Others) Act 1958 (now repealed). The said s 503, as amended, adopted the Limitation Convention 1957 limits, but not all the material provisions of the convention.
Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan have, since the above said 2011 amendment came into force in 2014, generally, adopted the LLMC 1976 as amended by the 1996 Protocol. However, that did not include the ‘tacit amendment’ procedure introduced by Art. 8(4) of the 1996 Protocol. Accordingly, the increased Art. 6 limits brought by the 2012 Resolution is not part of the Malaysia law.
The 16th Schedule of the MSO 1952, given force by s 360 of the MSO 1952, has two parts. Part I posts the substantive part of the LLMC 1976 as amended by the 1996 Protocol (excluding ‘tacit amendment’ procedure), with certain essential adjustments. Part II posts the domestic modifications to the adoption.
Limits are stated in SDR (Art. 8).
Please look at IMF SDR Valuation to convert the SDR to MYR or any other desired currency.
Right to limit liability is made available to Salvors, in addition to Shipowners (Art. 1(1)). Note: limitation was not available to Salvors in the Limitation Convention 1957/1979.
”Shipowner” is widely defined to mean the owner, charterer, manager and operator of the ship (Art. 1(2)).
The protection is made available to any person for whose act, neglect or default, the shipowner or salver is liable (Art. 1(4)).
The protection afforded to shipowners is available to the ship herself in an action brought against her (Art. 1(5)).
The protection is expressly extended to liability insurers (Art. 1(6)). Note: Even in the absence of such provision, in Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan, like many jurisdictions, an insurer was protected as much as the person liable on the claim, because a claim will be brought against a person liable on the claim rather than an insurer, who would only stand behind the person liable on the claim.
The right to limit applies to any ship, whether seagoing or not. Note: this is by way of modification of Art. 1(2) by para 2 of Part II of the Schedule. Such domestic modification was allowed by Art. 15(2)(a).
'Ship' is widely defined to include a ship under construction, insofar as the it is intended or launched for use in navigation as a ship (para 9 of Part II of the Schedule).
Air-cushion vehicles and floating platforms to explore or exploit natural resources of the sea-bed or the subsoil there are excluded from the limitation regime (Art. 15(5)).
The act of invoking limitation will not be construed as an admission of liability (Art. 1(7)).
Subject to the above, the limitation is available in all types of claims specified in Art. 2.
They include claims in respect of loss of life/personal injury, delay in carriage of cargo/passengers/passengers' luggage, infringement of rights (other than contractual rights), wreck (and the like) claims, and claims of persons who took measures to avert or minimise loss (other than the person would be liable on the claim).
The limitation does not apply in certain types of claims, which are specified in Art. 3.
They are salvage claims (including Art. 14 of the International Convention of Salvage 1989 - special compensation claims), oil pollution damage claims covered by CLC 1969, claims subject to international convention/national legislation governing or prohibiting limitation for nuclear damage, claims against shipowner of a nuclear ship for nuclear damage, and claims by servants of the shipowner/salvor which are subject to a contract of service.
Art. 4 sets out the conduct barring limitation, that is when the right to limit is lost. It will be triggered only if “"the loss resulted from his personal act or omission, committed with the intent to cause such loss, or recklessly and with knowledge that such loss would probably result." The burden is on the person opposing the limitation to prove this. Note: This is a formidably high threshold for a person opposing the limitation to prove.
In case of counterclaims arising from the same occurrence, the respective claims will be set off against each other, and the limitation will apply on the net balance amount (Art. 5).
For claims (other than passengers' loss of life / personal injury claims), Art. 6 sets out the limits. Art. 6(1)(a) sets out the limits in respect of personal claims (i.e. claims for loss of life or personal injury) by non-passengers. Art. 6(2)(b) sets out the limits in respect of all other claims (i.e. property and other claims by passengers and non-passengers) – this will be called here “property claims” for convenience. The only type of claim excluded in Art. 6 is passengers' personal claims.
If the personal claims limit is insufficient to cover all the personal claims, then the unsatisfied portion of the personal claims will spill over to property claims pool.
Ship's tonnage is gross tonnage per Tonnage Measurement Convention, 1969 (Art. 6(5)).
Passenger claims limit is 175,000 SDR per passenger based on the number of passenger that the ship is authorised to carry according to her certificate, without any cap (Art. 7(1)). Note: the cap of 25 million SDR originally in the LLMC 1976 was removed by Art. 4 of the 1996 Protocol, as adopted in Peninsular Malaysia and Labuan. For passenger claims, tonnage of a ship is irrelevant. A passenger is one carried in the ship under a contract of passenger carriage or one accompanying, with the consent of the carrier, a vehicle or live animals carried under a contract for carriage of goods. Hence, crew members are not passengers. 'Passengers' personal claims' refers only to loss of life or personal injury claims by passengers, and not property claims by passengers.
For Salvors not operating from a ship or solely on the casualty, tonnage is deemed 1,500 GT (Art. 6(4)).
For Salvors operating from a ship, liability is limited as per the tonnage of their ship just like any other shipowner.
For Salvors, the higher 'Passenger Claims' limit (ie. Art. 7 claims) is not applicable, whether they operate from a ship or solely on the casualty. Claims against them are always limited on the basis of personal and property claims as set out in Art. 6.
The limits apply to the aggregate of all claims made against the shipowner, charterer, manager, operator, their Master, crew and servers, arising on any distinct occasion (Art. 9(1)(a) and 9(2)). Similarly, all claims made against salvors not operating from a ship are aggregated into one group for the purpose of the limitation of the salvors’ liability (Art. 9(1)(c)). Likewise, all claims against salvors operating from their ship are aggregated for the purpose of the liability limit (Art. 9(1)(b)).
This calculator is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. We accept no responsibility for the calculation and the law stated here. Users must independently verify all information and consult with qualified legal professionals.