This was an appeal from Feest v South West Strategic Health Authority [2014] EWHC 177 (CMI65). Dr Feest participated in a boat trip as part of a corporate team building exercise. During the trip she suffered a serious spinal injury. Dr Feest was an employee of the South West Strategic Health Authority or ‘SWSHA’ (the first defendant/appellant) and she contended that the injury occurred in the course of her employment. Accordingly, she launched a personal injury claim. SWSHA filed a defence and issued a Part 20 claim against Bay Island Voyages (the third party/respondent), the owners and operators or the boat on which the accident took place, for a contribution to any liability to Dr Feest. The contribution was sought under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 (UK). Section 1 of this Act provides:

1. Entitlement to contribution.

(1) Subject to the following provisions of this section, any person liable in respect of any damage suffered by another person may recover contribution from any other person liable in respect of the same damage (whether jointly with him or otherwise).

(2) A person shall be entitled to recover contribution by virtue of subsection (1) above notwithstanding that he has ceased to be liable in respect of the damage in question since the time when the damage occurred, provided that he was so liable immediately before he made or was ordered or agreed to make the payment in respect of which the contribution is sought.

(3) A person shall be liable to make contribution by virtue of subsection (1) above notwithstanding that he has ceased to be liable in respect of the damage in question since the time when the damage occurred, unless he ceased to be liable by virtue of the expiry of a period of limitation or prescription which extinguished the right on which the claim against him in respect of the damage was based.

Bay Island Voyages argued that the Athens Convention applied to the boat trip. It relied on arts 14 and 16 specifically:

ARTICLE 14

Basis of Claims

No action for damages for the death of or personal injury to a passenger, or for the loss of or damage to luggage, shall be brought against a carrier or performing carrier otherwise than in accordance with this Convention.

ARTICLE 16

Time-bar for actions

1. An action for damages arising out of the death of or personal injury to a passenger or for the loss of or damage to luggage shall be time-barred after a period of two years.

2. The limitation period shall be calculated as follows:

a) in the case of personal injury, from the date of disembarkation of the passenger; …

3. The law of the court seized of the case shall govern the grounds of suspension and interruption of limitation periods, but in no case shall an action under this Convention be brought after the expiration of a period of three years from the date of disembarkation of the passenger or from the date of when disembarkation should have taken place, whichever is later.

4. Notwithstanding paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 of this Article, the period of limitation may be extended by a declaration of the carrier or by agreement of the parties after the cause of action has arisen. The declaration or agreement shall be in writing.

Bay Island Voyages contended that in the meaning of art 14 a claim against the carrier can be brought only in accordance with the Convention and a Part 20 claim for contribution is not a claim under the Convention. Secondly, they relied on the two-year time bar in art 16. Two questions arose for decision: 1) whether the Athens Convention extends to claims against the carrier for contribution to the liability of others, and 2) whether the time bar in art 16 of the Convention has the effect of barring the remedy or extinguishing the right on which the claim could be based.

Held: Appeal allowed.

1) The claim brought under the Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 is autonomous and derives from the English domestic statutory entitlement to contribution. The claim in itself is unaffected by the provisions of the Athens Convention. On the other hand, the liability of the carrier to contribute is dependent upon its own liability to the passenger, which in turn is governed by the provisions of the Convention, including those as to limitation.

2) Article 16 of the Athens Convention is a remedy-barring time bar; it does not extinguish the right on which the claim is based.