The Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage 1969 (CLC 1969), which deals with the dangers and problems of pollution caused by the transport of oil by sea, was ratified by Greece in Law 314/1976. Following the ratification of the Protocols of 1976, 1984 and 1992, this Convention is now called the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage 1992 (the CLC 1992). The provisions of the CLC 1992 were supplemented by the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Oil Pollution Damage 1971 (the Fund Convention 1971), which was ratified by Greece in Law 1638/1986. The Fund Convention 1971 was later amended to form the Fund Convention 1992, which was ratified by Greece in Law 270/1995.

In accordance with art 1 of the CLC Convention 1992:

'Ship' means any sea-going vessel and seaborne craft of any type whatsoever constructed or adapted for the carriage of oil in bulk as cargo, provided that a ship capable of carrying oil and other cargoes shall be regarded as a ship only when it is actually carrying oil in bulk as cargo and during any voyage following such carriage unless it is proved that it has no residues of such carriage of oil in bulk aboard.

Furthermore, art 1 of the 1992 Protocol, which amended the Fund Convention 1971, provides:

For the purposes of this Protocol:

1. 'Convention' means the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, 1992. ...

3. Paragraph 2 is replaced by the following text: 2. 'Ship', 'Person', 'Shipowner' .... have the same meaning as in Article 1 of the 1992 Liability Convention.

Therefore, for the application of the provisions of the abovementioned Conventions, the definition of the ship is the same in both the CLC Convention 1992 and the Fund Convention 1992. The Conventions describe two types of 'ships', namely: (a) a 'sea-going vessel and any type of ship constructed or configured to transport bulk oil as cargo'; and (b) a 'ship capable of transporting bulk oil and other cargoes', ie the 'mixed cargo' ship.

In this case, an oil tanker, owned by the company Petroleum Potential - Petrol Recycling Centre SA, which was permanently anchored in the sea off ​​Cynosoura, Salamis, exploded. This tanker had been purchased in 1995 for the purpose of separating out oil residues from other ships and storing the oil in its tanks until it was transported by other means from the separator to a refinery. The tanker's axle and propellor had been removed as these were no longer necessary, and its movements were now carried out with the help of tugs, but the tanker's structure was otherwise maintained in its original form.

On the basis of these facts, the Piraeus Court of Appeal considered that this waterborne oil separator facility did not come within the conventional concept of a ship and therefore nor did the claims against the IOPC Fund fall within the scope of the Fund Convention. In particular, the Court of Appeal considered that the separator facility did not have the status of a ship at the time of the injurious event because it was static and did not transport bulk oil, nor did it have the possibility of transporting oil, and finally the polluting event did not occur during a voyage that followed bulk oil transport, all the more so because of the five years since its last trip as a tanker and the construction work that had taken place.

Held: The Court of Appeal, by accepting that the abovementioned maritime structure does not fall within the definition of a ship, violated the provisions of art 1.1 of the CLC Convention 1992 and art 1.2 of the Fund Convention 1992. This was because, at the time of the incident, the tanker had the character of a marine shipbuilding in which mineral oil was stored and, moreover, had the ability to move under tow creating a further risk of contamination, without it being necessary for this to take place during bulk oil transport. Therefore, the first ground of the appeal is accepted by a majority.

The contested decision must be set aside, and the case referred back to the same Court of Appeal before a differently constituted bench.