Maritime Law (Maritime Privilege Rights)

Maritime privilege rights

In Egyptian maritime commercial law no.8 of 1990:

Egypt didn't ratify the Brussels accord on April 10, 1926 about the unification of some rules about privilege rights and the maritime mortgages. However, it was included in the internal legislation of the law no.35 of 1951 about privilege rights and the maritime mortgages.

The new maritime commercial law followed the same standards in the articles from 29-40.

What are the privilege rights levied on a ship?

Art.29 of the maritime commercial law stated that the privilege rights exclusively are...

Then it numerated six groups of privilege rights arranged according to its priority on the ship in successive sections excluding the other privileges stipulated in the civil law or other law. These groups are:

1- Privileges of the first class:

Section one states that (Judicial expenses spent on the sale of the ship and the distribution of its prices).

2- Privileges of the second class:

Section two states that (Duties and taxes due to the state or person of the public law and dock dues for charge and discharge, guidance, trailing, security, maintenance and other maritime services in the port).

3- Privileges of the third class:

Section three states that (Debts resulting from the labor contracts of the shipmaster, the shipmen and others who are related to the ship through labor contracts).

4- Privileges of the fourth class:

Section four states that (Rewards due for rescues and the share of the ship in compound losses).

5- Privileges of the fifth class:

Section five states that (Compensation due for collision or pollution of the navigation accidents, compensations for the damages to the ports, docks or navigation paths equipment, compensations for the physical injuries that may occur to passengers, shipmaster and shipmen and compensation for the destruction and deterioration of the goods and luggage).

6- Privileges of the sixth class:

Section six states that (Debts due to the contracts the shipmaster concluded and the operations he performed out of the ports of registering the ship within his legal authorities for actual needs of maintaining the ship or continuing his trip whether the shipmaster is the owner of the ship or nnot and whether the debt is due to him, to the entrepreneur of the supplies, to the creditors, the ship, to the persons who repaired the ship or to other contractors and the debts of the equipper (owner) for the works performed by the ship agent in accordance with Art.140 of this law).

How will the maritime privileges concerning several trips or one trip be arranged?

1- The arrangement of maritime privilege rights concerning several trips:

The legislator arranged the maritime privilege rights following the German theory that decides that each trip by a ship forms a legal group by itself with its specific rights and obligations.

Art.35/1 of the maritime law states that the privileged debts arising from any trip preceded the privilege debts arising from a previous trip.

There is an exception to this rule concerning the debts arising from one maritime contract for multiple trips, as Art.35/2 states that (All the debts arising from this contract are equal in class to the debts of the last trip, whether they have arisen from previous trips or from the last trip).

2- The arrangement of maritime privilege rights concerning one trip:

In this context, the legislator adopted the Latin theory as he stated that the privileged rights that arise within one trip will be arranged according to the order of the six classes previously mentioned in detail.

There is an exception to this rule concerning the privileged rights mentioned in the fourth and sixth classes as:

These debts are arranged in accordance with the reverse order of the date of their arising as the last right in date precedes the precedent right, though they are of one group, Atr.34/3.

The debts concerning an accident are considered to arise on one date without considering the date of arising of these debts Art.34/4.

What are the effects of the maritime privilege ?

The maritime privilege right decides that the privileged creditors have the right to precede other creditors following him in class. Therefore, he precedes the other creditors' mortgages of the ship in accordance with Art.50 of the maritime law.

The maritime privileges precede in class the maritime mortgage, as the maritime privilege gives the privileged creditor the right of tracing the ship whatever whom hand hold it.

What are the maritime privilege lapse causes ?

The debt terminates by the lapse of the debt according to the public rules.

The maritime commercial law also decides that (The privilege terminates when the ship is compulsively sold, optionally sold under certain conditions (Art.37) and by obsolescence (Art.38).