The plaintiff brought a claim against the defendant, the insurer of a boat that caused damage to the plaintiff's boat which was moored in the buoy field of the CN Sa Riera. The boat insured by the defendant had not been moored properly to avoid the collision.

The plaintiff claimed EUR 1,166.03 for damage caused to the plaintiff's boat.

Held: Judgment for the plaintiff.

The plaintiff makes a claim based on the obligation to repair the damage by virtue of arts 339 ff of Law 14/2014, of July 24, on Maritime Navigation (the LNM).

As the plaintiff highlights, in terms of collisions, art 339 of the LNM requires us to refer to the Collision Convention 1910. The LNM provides in art 339.3 that the damage that a ship, vessel or maritime property causes to another without contact as a result of an incorrect manoeuvre in navigation will also be regulated by the same regime. This is a case of a collision where the fault is attributable exclusively to one of the vessels involved, in this case the vessel insured by the defendant.

On this fault-based approach, the essential element is guilt; and by such should be understood, not only the infringement of regulations, but also any other rule of a complementary nature, including local usages of navigation, as well as the lack of observance of any marine rule of experience or that should be known. In this regard, r 21.a [sic: 2.a] of the COLREGs should be highlighted, which states that '[n]othing in these Rules shall exonerate any vessel, or the owner, master or crew thereof, from the consequences of any neglect to comply with these Rules or of the neglect of any precaution which may be required by the ordinary practice of seamen, or by the special circumstances of the case'.

In this case, despite the difference in heights in the impact on the plaintiff's boat, it should be noted that there was bad weather on the day the other boat came loose, which can alter the heights between a boat with respect to the other. That both boats collided, and that the one that came loose from its mooring is the boat insured by the defendant, was witnessed directly by a worker at the yacht club where both were moored.

Therefore, the causal link is sufficiently proven.