Merchant Shipping Act, 1951 (Act No. 57 of 1951)Chapter IX : Offences, Penal Provisions and Legal Procedure344. Prescription |
| (1) | The period of extinctive prescription in respect of legal proceedings to enforce any claim or lien against a ship or its owners in respect of any damage to or loss of another ship, its cargo or freight, or any goods on board such other ship, or damage for loss of life or personal injury suffered by any person on board such other ship, caused by the fault of the former ship, whether such ship be wholly or partly in fault, shall be two years and shall begin to run on the date when the damage or loss or injury was caused. |
[Section 344(1) substituted by section 29 of Act No. 94 of 1996]
| (2) | The period of extinctive prescription in respect of legal proceedings under this Act to enforce any contribution in respect of an overpaid proportion of any damages for loss of life or personal injury shall be one year and shall begin to run on the date of payment. |
| (3) | Any court having jurisdiction to try proceedings referred to in subsection (1) or (2) shall, before or after the expiry of such period, if it satisfied that owing to the absence of the defendant ship from the Republic and its territorial waters and from the country to which the plaintiff's ship belongs or in which the plaintiff resides or carries on business and its territorial waters, the plaintiff has not during such period had a reasonable opportunity of arresting the defendant ship, extend such period sufficiently to give him such reasonable opportunity. |
| (4) | [Section 344(4) deleted by section 2(1) of Act No. 40 of 2002] |