Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This is one of several of the Braer actions that have been raised by two or more pursuers in which the pursuers seek to substitute for themselves as individuals a partnership of which they are or were the partners.

The pursuers have enrolled a motion

The action has been raised by Joseph Watt and Magnus William Watt as individuals. One of the purposes of the proposed amendment is to substitute for the present pursuers;

Counsel for the pursuers accept that the Minute of Amendment was lodged more than three years after the first emergence of the loss referred to on Record. This case therefore raises a question of prescription. Counsel agree that that question turns on the interpretation of section 9 of the Merchant Shipping (Oil Pollution) Act 1971. It is the question that was in issue in Gray v The Braer Corporation and Others, (29 December 1998, unreported). That case was at avizandum when I heard the present motion.

Counsel agree that on the present question this case is indistinguishable from Gray. They also agree that the present case raises no new point. At the hearing on the motion they adopted the submissions that they had made in Gray.

I have now given judgment in Gray in which I have refused a similar motion. For the reasons that I gave in that case, I consider that the claim of the partnership in the present case has prescribed. I shall refuse the motion.