Canadian Pacific Railway Company v. The "Sheena M"

In Limitation of Liability in Maritime Law on (Updated )

This action arose out of the collision between the unmanned barge, "Rivtow 901", in tow of the "Sheena M", and the Mission Railway Bridge. The Plaintiffs, the owners of the "Sheena M", brought this application for summary judgment for an order that they were entitled to limit their liability under s. 577(1)(b) of the Canada Shipping Act to $500,000.00 plus interest. The Defendant, the owner of the bridge, admitted that the collision was not caused by a "personal act or omission" or "with intent to cause such loss" or "recklessly with knowledge that such loss would probably result" and, therefore, the right of the Plaintiffs to limit liability was not in dispute. The sole issue was whether the limitation fund should be calculated on the tonnage of the tug, "Sheena M", alone or whether it should be calculated on the combined tonnage of the tug and tow. The leading Canadian case on this issue was recognized by all to be the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in The "Rhone" v The "A.B. Widener", [1993] 1 S.C.R. 497, in which the Supreme Court affirmed that the limitation fund should be calculated on the combined tonnage of the tug and tow provided the tug and tow were in common ownership (the "flotilla principle"). In the absence of common ownership and where the barge was a "dumb barge", the fund was to be calculated on the basis of the tonnage of the tug alone. However, the limitation of liability regime in effect at the time of the decision in The "Rhone" was essentially that contained in the 1957 Convention on Limitation of Liability for Marine Claims. That regime was repealed by C.6 Statutes of Canada 1998, which implemented the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability for Marine Claims, with some modifications. Counsel for the Defendant argued that these changes to Canada’s limitation of liability regime had overtaken the decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in The "Rhone" and that the new regime should be interpreted as requiring the tonnage for limitation purposes to be calculated on the basis of the combined tonnage. Counsel for the Defendant pointed specifically to the new definition of "shipowner" in s. 576(3) of the Canada Shipping Act which includes "any person having an interest in or possession of a ship" and urged that by virtue of this definition the owners of the "Sheena M" were also owners of the "Rivtow 901". The Court, however, held that the new definition of "shipowner" was merely a substitution for former s. 577 of the Canada Shipping Act which had similarly extended the limitation of liability provisions to, inter alia, "any person having an interest in or possession of a ship". The Court therefore concluded that the legislation before it was essentially the same as was before the Supreme Court of Canada in The "Rhone". Counsel for the Defendant next argued that the "flotilla principle" was no longer valid because the new limitation of liability regime did away with concepts of "causative negligence" and "common ownership" . The Court also rejected this argument saying that the 1998 amendments showed no clear intent on the part of Parliament to change the existing Canadian "flotilla principle". In the result, the limitation fund was calculated on the basis of the tonnage of the tug alone.