This was an appeal in cassation against the judgment of the Rennes Court of Appeal, 27 January 1988. Following the grounding in French territorial waters, off the coast of Portsall, of the Amoco Cadiz belonging to Amoco Transport Co (the shipowner), as well as the pollution caused by oil from the vessel's tanks, a liability of limitation fund, as provided for by the Brussels International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage 1969 (the CLC 1969) was constituted on 25 April 1978 by an order of the President of the Brest Commercial Court on the application of the shipowner. By the same order, a liquidator was appointed. While the French State and the French local authorities affected by the pollution brought proceedings against the shipowner before the courts of a State of the United States of America, which has not adhered to the CLC 1969, the Government of the United Kingdom sued the shipowner in the Commercial Court of Brest to repair the damage caused because of this accident, as well as, in intervention, Mr Alain Y, ex officio, as the liquidator of the limitation fund.

By a judgment of 21 July 1987, the Court of Cassation decided that the Rennes Court of Appeal had rightly ruled, by a judgment of 3 October 1985, that the procedure instituted by the Decree of 27 October 1967 for the execution of French legislation relating to the limitation of the liability of the shipowner could not be extended to the application of the provisions of the CLC 1969, but quashed the abovementioned judgment in that it had exonerated the liquidator of the limitation of liability fund. In view of the expert report ordered by the Court of Cassation, the Court of Appeal handed down the contested judgment.

Held: Partial cassation.

The general principle is that interest is due on compensation awarded for the repair of damage until such compensation is paid. By refusing to award interest on the compensation due to the United Kingdom Government, the Court of Appeal held that the author of the damage had released itself in advance from its debt on the date of constitution of the fund. By ruling thus, while the default interest on the compensation awarded runs on the amount in the fund until the date of its payment to the victim of the damage, the Court of Appeal has not given a legal basis for its decision.

For these reasons, the judgment under appeal is struck down and annulled, but only in that it ordered Mr Alain Y, as liquidator of the limitation fund, to pay the United Kingdom Government the quota of the fruits of the said fund, but refused to grant interest at the legal rate on the compensation awarded to the Government of the United Kingdom. Consequently, as regards this issue, the case and the parties are returned to the position they were in before the aforementioned judgment, and the case is referred to the Rouen Court of Appeal to be decided correctly.