The Improvement Of The Procedure Of Limitation Of Liability For Maritime Claims

The procedure of limitation of laibility for maritime claims is the guarantee of the Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims.The limitation principle of "one accident,one limitation" is realized through the establishment of the limitation fund for maritime claims.In order to make the limitation fund play the function of concentrating all the claims caused by the same accident,guaranteeing all the restricted claims and distributing to restricted creditors,the procedure of the limitation fund is endowed with the requirement of higher efficiency.Therefore,the Maritime Procedure Law and the relevant judicial interpretations have made the corresponding program design for the whole limitation fund procedure.However,due to the lack of practical experience,there are many procedural problems in relevant laws,which lead to the failure of the Limitation Fund to achieve the efficiency requirement.In order to solve the efficiency problem of the procedure of limitation fund,this paper studies the relevant foreign legislation and cases by means of comparative research and empirical research,aiming at putting forward the solutions to these problems.In the procedure of establishing the limitation fund for maritime claims,the procedure is complicated,which leads to the prolonged time of the establishing the fund,which makes it impossible for the person liable to achieve the purpose of releasing the detained ship or other property quickly through the establishment of the limitation fund.In the procedure of setting limitation fund,the time of registrating creditor’s rights and creditor’s objection is too early,which slow down the progress of the setting limitation fund.In the affirmative petitory action,the procedure of first instance and the procedure of second instance are mixed,which leads to loopholes in the connection between the handling of substantive disputes and the distribution of limitation fund.The judgment of the first instance has come into effect,and part of the cases applying the second instance procedure are still going on,which leads to the delay in the distribution of liability limitation fund for the creditor’s rights that have come into effect in the first instance.In the procedure of creditors’ meeting,creditors’ meeting is held after the affirmative petitory action,which leads to the loss of the actual function of creditors’ meeting and the lack of practical significance.After determining the person liable has no right to limit liability,there is no procedure to deal with the limitation fund.In order to solve these problems,the time of registrating creditor’s rights and could be adjusted after the establishment of limitation fund,the time of the creditors’ objection could be adjusted after the court allowing the person liable for the establishment of limitation fund,in order to decrease the establishment procedure of limitation fund,reduce the establishment time and the litigation cost.By adjusting the time of the creditors’ meeting to precede the affirmative petitory action,the creditors’ meeting checks the creditor’s rights and negotiate the distribution of limitation fund,and the disputed creditor’s rights will be determined by the court,so as to fully respect the autonomy of the parties and reduce the litigation cost of the court and the parties.The creditor’s rights that have taken effect in the first instance in the affirmative petitory action shall be allocated first,and the creditor’s rights that are still in the second instance shall be allocated after the judgment has taken effect.If there is any surplus after distribution,it shall be distributed pro rata to the first group of distributed creditors.In this way,the affirmative petitory action and the distribution of limitation fund can be smoothly connected,and the efficiency of allocation of the limitation fund can be improved.After the person liable has no right to limit liability,the limitation fund and the limitation procedure will be retained,and the creditors will be allowed to apply to the court for the execution of other properties of the person liable in order to realize the full settlement of the claims.In this way,the repeated implementation of relevant judicial procedures can be avoided,the litigation efficiency can be improved,and the creditors can be guaranteed to get compensation in time.