The British judiciary prevents Spain from collecting Prestige insurance compensation

A British court ruled on Friday to do so Spain cannot enforce any judgment The Spanish that forced the insurance company of the sunken oil tanker “prestige“To pay up 855 million euros Due to the environmental disaster that resulted from its sinking in 2002.

Judge Christopher Butcher, of the Commercial Court of the High Court, upheld the appeal of the London Steamship Owners’ Mutual Insurance Society against the enforcement of a judgment of the Regional Court of La Coruña, which The insurance company was found liable to compensate the state for the toxic spill On the coast of Galicia in November 2002.

In his rulingThe judge finds the Spanish sentence “irreconcilable.” With an arbitration ruling in the UK that exempted the company from paying Spain. In his opinion, recognizing that the decision of the Galician court “would be contrary” to the principle of res judicata (“res judicata”) governing England. Ship flying the Bahamas flag, It crashed while carrying 70,000 tons of heavy fuel oilcausing damage to the northern coast of Spain and the western coast of France, opening a long legal dispute between the insurance company and Spain that was raised in two different cases in two member states.

Although Spain and France filed a lawsuit against the company under Article 117 of the Penal Code, the insurance company stuck to the fact that its contract with the ship owners stipulated that any dispute would be settled by arbitration in the United Kingdom. In 2013, a ruling was issued by British lawyer Alastair Schaaf Exempting the company from payingThis is done by applying a clause that exempts the insurer from paying if the tanker owners have not paid it before.

This arbitration opened a long process that also reached the Court of Justice of the European Union, which in 2022 ruled in favor of Spain. However, a new UK ruling by retired judge Peter Gross back in March this year has confirmed that the dispute should be governed by English law and thatSpain was “violating its obligations” to seek justice in other cases.

In May of this year, Judge Butcher held four sessions in which both parties presented their arguments, before issuing his ruling today, which is subject to appeal. The decision has side effects, ever sinceIn the UK, several renewable corporate arbitrations are currently taking place Justice allowed Spain to confiscate part of the compensation it had to collect from the Prestige Insurance Company.