Salvage
- Salvor has a maritime lien on the salvaged property. A successful
salvage claim requires three proofs: (1) marine peril; (2) voluntary
service rendered when not required as an existing duty or from a special
contract; and (3) success in whole or in part, or contribution to the
success of the operation.
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- Admiralty action lies for any claim in the nature of salvage services
rendered to a ship, whether such ship or vessel may have been within India
or the high seas at the time when its services were rendered in respect of
which the claim is made.
Salvage signifies the services rendered by a salvor, or, in its primary
meaning, the reward to which he becomes entitled by reason of such
services. All services rendered at sea to a vessel in danger or distress
are salvage services, but the expression salvage services is especially
used to indicate a voluntary personal services successfully rendered to
property in danger at sea. Salvage in its simple character is the services
which those who recover property from loss or danger at sea render to the
owner, with the responsibility of making restitution and with a lien for
their reward. This service entitles a salvor to a reward in a court
exercising admiralty jurisdiction.
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- Section 402 of the (Indian) Merchant Shipping Act 1958 provided as
follows:
"(1) Where services are rendered: -
(a) wholly or in part within the territorial waters of India in saving
life from any vessel or elsewhere in saving life from a vessel registered
in India; or
(b) in assisting a vessel or saving the cargo or equipment of a vessel
which is wrecked, stranded or in distress at any place on or near the
coats of India; or
(c) by any person other than the receiver of wreck in saving any wreck;
there shall be payable to the salvor by the owner of the vessel cargo,
equipment or wreck, a reasonable sum for salvage having regard to all the
circumstances of the case.
(2) salvage in respect of the preservation of life when payable by the
owner of the vessel shall be payable in priority to all other claims for
salvage.
(3) where salvage services are rendered by or on behalf of the Government
or by a vessel of the Indian Navy or the commander or crew of any such
vessel, the Government, the commander or the crew, as the case may be,
shall be entitled to salvage and shall have the same rights and remedies
in respect of those services as any other salvor.
(4) any dispute arising concerning the amount due under this section shall
be determined upon application made by either of the disputing parties -
(a) to a Judicial Magistrate of the first class or Metropolitan Magistrate
as the case may be where the amount claimed does not exceed ten thousand
rupees; or
(b) to the High Court, where the amount claimed exceeds ten thousand
rupees.
(5) where there is any dispute as to the persons who are entitled to the
salvage amount under this section, the Judicial Magistrate of the first
class or the Metropolitan Magistrate or the High Court as the case may be
shall decide the dispute and if there are more persons than one entitled
to such amount, such Magistrate or the High Court shall apportion the
amount thereof among such persons.
(6) The costs of and incidental to all proceedings before a Judicial
Magistrate of the first class or Metropolitan Magistrate or the High Court
under this section shall be in the discretion of such Magistrate or the
High Court, and such Magistrate or the High Court shall have full power to
determine by whom or out of what property and to what extent such costs
are to be paid and to give all necessary directions for the purpose
aforesaid."
The section provides that any dispute as to salvage shall be determined by
a magistrate where the amount does not exceed Rs.10,000 and by the High
Court where the amount exceeds that sum. For the purpose of the said Act
the term "High Court" has been defined by section 3(15) of the said Act in
relation to a vessel to mean the High Court within the limits of whose
appellate jurisdiction:
(a) the port of registry of the vessel is situate; or
(b) the vessel is for the time being; or
(c) the cause of action wholly or in part arises.
One of the effects of the said section is that all the High Courts of
littoral states will have jurisdiction to entertain a cause relating to
salvage and not just the High Courts having Admiralty Jurisdiction. That
part it is arguable that the Admiralty Jurisdiction exercised by the High
Courts in relation to such a cause has been replaced and substituted by or
must yield to the special jurisdiction conferred by the Act and that
consequently a suit on such a cause is not maintainable in the Admiralty
jurisdiction of the High Courts.
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- BCAS: 2102-1013
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