Maritime Lawyers

On the occasion of "POSIDONIA 2002" and in the framework of the international cooperation for the suppression of terrorism and other illegal financial activities, it is interesting to go back in time and recall the conditions prevailing in the Aegean archipelago in the 18th century (the early days of the contemporary Greek shipping).

At such time the decline of the Ottoman power as well as the outbreak of wars between the european states, on land and at sea, created favourable conditions for the expansion of the shipping trade in the Aegean islands but also it facilitated the spreading of piratical raids in the Mediterranean.

As evidenced by the correspondence of the "Council of Elders" of the island of Hydra, the reaction to that great menace of piracy was manifested in various ways.

Initially the islanders asked for the assistance of the Ottoman authorities, actually of the "Captain Pasha" (the chief admiral of the Sultan) who on many occasions proceeded to issue special orders (charging naturally the islanders with the expenses of the operation.) as for example the "order" of 10th May 1790 to the "elders" of Hydra stating amongst others that ".our king felt charitable and appointed us to go out and fight our enemy, the pirate, and to clean up the White Sea (Aegean) with the blessings of our king and the help of God. we order you to send us three thousand grossia (Ottoman coins). to cover our needs.".

At a later stage the island's elders turned to the authorities of western european countries such as Venice controlling then the Ionian islands.

In this connection there is, in the Hydriot Archives, a report by the "elders" of Hydra dated 21st February 1794 to the "most excellent squire captain of the navy or to whom it may concern (presumably to the Venetian authorities of Zante) ". we declare that captain Desante, the so-called Frenchman, after taking as prize two of our caiques, at the island of Proti, he pretended to have sold one of them and despatched her to Zante. where the judicial authorities arrested that caique together with her cargo. we feel encouraged to appeal to the philanthropy and justice of your excellency and beg you to consent and adjudge and decide that our own Andreas and the owner of the caique Ioannis should find justice and recover their property. We would have thought it impossible that subjects of the serene aristocracy (Venice) could purchase a "prize" taken from us as such, as we are subject of the Sublime Porte which is in friendly relations with your authorities. and that the caique was taken as prize in the waters patrolled by your excellency's boats and that finally such pirates have not obtained any mandate from your excellency to take as "prize" other christians' property. etc.

As we do not doubt the love and affection of most serene ("serenissima) aristocracy to ourselves, being also Christians, and that you would never wish to force us to seek protection from the Ottoman authorities etc.".

On the other hand the assistance of the other neighbouring islands was requested many times in order to chase various local pirates as shown e.g. in the draft letter of 1795 of the leaders of Hydra to the "Elders" of the island of Aegina regarding pirate Andreas Tzakonis in which it is proposed ". to move together with enthousiasm all four neighbouring islands, to equip jointly a boat in order to persecute him agreeing to pay one or two months wages to the crew until he is captured . and the said four islands to contribute in the payment of crew wages and for the necessary provisions. our island being the largest should contribute twice as much as the other three islands (Spetses, Poros and Aegina) etc.". Finally it should be noted that the Elders of Hydra did not hesitate to petition even the ministers of Great Britain to release some of their compatriots whose vessels had been seized by British warships as "prize" presumably due to breaking the "embargo" imposed on countries at war with Great Britain as shown in the copy of the following letter written in 1801.

"...We the community of Hydra placing our trust in her Majesty's justice (courts?) at port Maoum (?) (possibly Mahon in Minorca) that our captains Nicholas Ioannou son of George, Antonios Andreou, Ioannis Manolis and Ioannis Andreou have been detained on the pretext that by order of the Captain Pasha (the Ottoman Admiral) the property of the Greeks which is found in the countries of the enemies of her Britannic Majesty should be taken as "prize". We witness before men and God that not only at the time that those captains left from Hydra to go to Gibraltar and Lisbon such an order had not been issued by the Captain Pasha, but even today we are unaware of such an order, as it would have been sent to us in writing forbidding the sailing of ships to all parts of the West by threatening sanctions against the disobedient ones, which we believe cannot be done without us prior notice to us... and because of the many services and gifts that we constantly offer to his excellency. we beg for the charity of the excellent justice (perhaps British courts) and we petition yourselves the ministers of his Britannic Majesty to consider our situation as we are Greeks and we believe no Briton is incapable to understand the hard conditions in which we are living".

To conclude it must be noted that unfortunately the pirates continued their activities in the Aegean waters until the time of Greek independence when piracy was wiped out by action taken by the Hydriot admiral Andreas Miaoulis by order of the Governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias.

Th. Babalis

The Greek MARITIME COMPANY of Law 959/1979
Recent amendments

The new Law 2987/12-21.2.2002 (published recently in the Government Gazette) has introduced certain amendments to Law 959/1979 providing for an increase of the minimum capital of the "Maritime Company" to Euro 5,000 (as against Grd 300.000 or Euro 880,41 previously required) and permitting the acquisition of shares in such companies by nationals and legal entities of countries-members of the European Union and the European Economic Zone. In addition the new law regulates also the employment of retired seamen, the terms and conditions of building in port areas and various other matters pertaining to the jurisdiction of the Regulating Authority of Maritime Transport.

Regulations of E.U. in force

At the issue L 12/16.1.2001 of the Official Journal of the European Communities, the Regulation 44/2001 was published, dealing with "the International Jurisdiction, the Adoption and the Execution of Decisions in Civil and Commercial Cases" coming into force since 1/3/2002 (art. 76) with the simultaneous abolition of the Brussels Convention of 1968, with the same subject, as far as concerns the corresponding relations between the E.U. Member States.

It is noteworthy that the Regulation 1348/2000 pertaining to the "Service of Writs and Legal Documents relating to Civil and Commercial Cases" between the E.U. Member States, came into force on 31/5/2001, with the simultaneous abolition of the Hague Convention of 1965 having the same subject (L.1334/83).

Amendments to the legal status of L. 89/1967,
the introduction to the Stockmarket of Shares of Co. Inv. to the Merch. Shipping etc.

Art. 12 of the L. 2992/20.3.2002 provides the following:

"1. The tax duties and tax clearances and facilities provided for in the C.L. 89/1967 (Government Gazette 132 a') do not apply to the foreign commercial and industrial companies, established in Greece, after the 1st January 2002. 2. For the companies referred to in the above paragraph, which come under the provisions of the C.L. 89/1967 latest by 31st December 2001, the tax duties and tax clearances and facilities of this law remain in force until 31st December 2005."

The legal status concerning the Maritime Companies which are established in Greece according to the provisions of the C.L. 89/1967 and 378/1968 is not amended.

The same law also regulates various other matters connected to Merchant Shipping, such as: Art. 5 which amends the provisions of the L. 2843/2000 "for the Introduction to the Stock Exchange Market of Shares of Companies Investing to Merchant Shipping" so that disorders and obscurities having arisen during the implementation of the amended law to be lifted.

Art. 14 regulates matters concerning the taxation of seamen (deduction of the percentage of the tax etc.) so that the competition of Greek Merchant Shipping to be increased.

Seizure of funds by creditors
at debtors' bank accounts

As already known, by art. 24 of Law 2915/2001 (in force since 29.05.2001) the "seerecy" of money deposits with all Greek banks can be lifted to the extent that an enforceable award against the holder of a bank account is duly presented to the bank involved on behalf of the holder's creditor in that case with request for payment to him according to the terms of that award.

The same procedure applies also in the case of "immaterial" shares duly recorded in the system of Immaterial Title of Capital as well as with regard to valuables kept in banks' safe, and to bank guarantees before they fall due.

This "lifting" of seerecy in favour of the debtor's creditors extends only as for as the satisfaction of the claim thus presented and pressed on behalf of the creditor is concerned. More details of the relevant procedure are given in that law.

Measures for maritime security

The Greek position on matters of security of ships and ports against terrorism was adopted at the 84th session of the IMO Legal Committee which convened in April. Greece supports the international effort to prevent and suppress terrorist acts aimed against shipping, which is also the objective of the Maritime Safety Committee of the IMO.

In a paper to this Organisation, which commanded wide support, the Greek delegation described the nature of the entity whose activity may affect issues of security against terrorism.

The Legal Committee concluded that the fundamental question is to identify the person or persons conducting the effective operational control of a ship and referred to certain methods whereby this can be achieved.

Supreme Court (Arios Pagos) in plenary session - Judgment No. 4/2002
Shipmanaging companies are not liable as per the Collective Labour Agreements to technicians working in repairs aboard vessels.

The judgment in question has resolved an issue which had been of concern to the Greek shipping industry for some time.

In this particular - though representative - case the claimant had been engaged by the shipmanaging company acting on its behalf to work as a technician fitter for a certain period of time and for a particular repair work. He offered his services as such on a vessel of its management while sailing abroad and for that service he claimed from the shipmanaging company wages in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements providing for wages and work terms for technicians and employees employed in metallurgical enterprises in the Piraeus Ship repairs Zone.

The Supreme Court decided that the Collective Labour Agreements regarding the rates of wages and work terms for technicians and employees working in metallurgical enterprises of that Zone did not apply in this case as the shipmanaging company did not constitute an established enterprise of metallurgical works nor did it maintain a self-contained metallurgical operation. And on these grounds the petition of the claimant for annulment of the judgment given against him by the Court of Appeal was rejected.

VIEWS

The 8th anniversary of the Greek Maritime Courts

Eight years have passed since the 16th March 1994 when the special divisions for hearing "maritime disputes" started operating in the Piraeus First Instance and Appeals Courts pursuant to law 2172/1993. The introduction of this Act simply sanctioned the informal operation of de facto maritime sections in the Piraeus Courts (within the framework of their internal regulations) satisfying the real need for specialist judges to resolve "maritime disputes" in accordance with the applicable Greek or foreign laws leading to the establishment of a standardized maritime jurisprudence.

Article 51, paragraph 3 of the Act contains an indicative list of "maritime disputes" which is by no means restrictive as the Court is clearly empowered to exercise its wide discretion to expand such list (by way of legal interpretation) in order to include all disputes relative to the "ship", the work performed on board and the maritime trade in general. It is worth noting that the Act sets out in its provisions also the qualifications required for the judges who will serve on such maritime divisions.

The combination of the above requirements manifests in principle the aims of the legislator which have been achieved more or less during the eight years of the operation of maritime divisions of the Piraeus Courts. Hopefully a serious and learned scientific approach of the relevant problems will continue to be adopted so that the jurisprudence will be standardized to the extent that the maritime divisions of the Piraeus Courts will be considered reliable to such a degree that they will be selected by litigants in preference to other international jurisdictions for the resolution of disputes of an international nature.

Finally the anticipated improvement of the courts material and technical infrastructure (i.e. classification and recordation of "precedents" access to foreign "precedents" and legal theory) the participation of the judges in training seminars, scientific conferences, their re-training etc. should result in the realization of the aims of the legislation and at the same time will contribute decisively in the rendering of justice.

Maria Dimitropoulou
President Judge of the First Instance Court of Piraeus

ANNOUNCEMENTS

ELECTION OF THE NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE PIRAEUS ASS. BAR AND OF OUR SOCIETY

After the election of the new Board of Directors of the Piraeus Association Bar, which took place in February, and the composition into Body, the Offices held are as follows:

President: Kon. Petalas

Vice-President: Emm. Kotsonis

Gen. Secretary: Pan. Papatheodoro-poulos

Treasurer: Kon. Resvanis

It is noteworthy that the Foreign Colleagues (the English), who recently entered our Association as new members, voted as well at the Election of the Association' s Board of Directors, according to the relevant European Directive.

Elections were also conducted at our Society for the election of the new Board of Directors. The persons referred hereunder were elected and qualified as follows:

President: Paulos Avrameas

Vice-President: Nic. Scorinis

Secretary: Grig. Timagenis

Dep. Secretary: Doxi Zissimatou

Treasurer: Nic. Baltazanis

Members: Vlas. Makris, Nic. Goyios, Nic. Gerasimou

The British School of Archaeology and its Friends are holding a reception on board the warship "Averof" on the 21st June 2002 to lodge an appeal for financial assistance of the "John Morrison Fund for Maritime Studies".
For further information contact Mr. David Blacken
on telephone number 210 7210974.