COUR DE CASSATION DE BELGIQUE

摘要

The 2-year time-bar period of Article 270 Maritime Code, which is the transposition into Belgian law of the 1910 Brussels Collision Convention, is suspended by virtue of Article 2251 Civil Code, which provides that the time-bar period does not run against those who are unable to bring an action as a result of a legal obstacle. Indeed, Article 7 of the said 1910 Convention provides that the grounds for suspension and interruption are determined by the law of the forum, in this case Belgium law. Thus the shipowner's action against the Flemish Region, which is the organiser of the public pilotage service, is not time-barred, considering that it was brought before the date of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights sanctioning the 30-year retroactive effect provided for by the Belgian legislator, bearing in mind that subsequently the Belgian legislature put an end to the illegal retroactivity by an act of later date.