Application by the owner of the Sylt for limitation of liability under the Brussels Limitation Convention 1957 for a cargo claim relating to a shipment of sugar that was carried from Antwerp (Belgium) to Freetown (Sierra Leone). The cargo claim of the bill of lading holder had been allowed by a court in Freetown, and this claimant obtained security by effecting attachments on the Sylt in Rotterdam.

Held: The absence of a provision in the LLMC 1976 - which has replaced the 1957 Convention as from 1 September 1990 - about its temporal application does not justify the conclusion that the LLMC 1976 had immediate effect and should be applied to applications for limitation of liability for claims relating to incidents which took place before its entry into force. Immediate temporal effect would lead to complications where the LLMC 1976 differs from the law applying beforehand, and would injure the protection of the interests of shipowners contemplated by the Convention, who have probably aligned their course of action following the incident on the basis of the possibilities of limitation of liability under the law applicable right after the incident. The conclusion - no immediate effect - is supported by the provision of art VI of the Act of 14 June 1989 (Dutch Gazette 241) amending the Dutch Code of Commerce and the Dutch Code of Civil Procedure in connection with the LLMC 1976: that Act only applies with regard to the liability of an incident which took place after it entered into force.