Diving Claims victory for UK Solicitors

Diving Claims victory for UK Solicitors

Diving Claims victory for UK Solicitors

A team of personal injury and employment law specialists from Bridge McFarland Solicitors has helped win an important victory in the Court of Appeal that should allow three injured British divers to claim compensation from a Saudi Arabia-based employer.

The three divers, Stephen Harley, Andrew Iles and Michael Hopley, allege long-term health problems after toxic chemicals were discharged into water in which they were working in May 2003.

The men were employed by Khalifa A Algosaibi Diving and Marine Services (ADAMS) and the incident happened while they were disconnecting and flushing hoses on a vessel owned by Saudi Aramco, the state-owned national oil company.

While disconnecting the last of three hoses, a toxic white-brown sludge was discharged into the sea and the men quickly began to experience respiratory problems. They also suffered nausea and rashes and they have since been unable to work as commercial divers.

Two of the divers, Mr Harley and Mr Iles, approached Bridge McFarland for help in 2006 and legal proceedings claiming damages for personal injury were begun against ADAMS and the divers' immediate supervisor, Mr Ian Smith, who was in charge of the operation at the time of the incident.

However, ADAMS and Mr Smith argued that the claims should have been brought under Saudi law and that the Claimants had missed a one-year deadline for starting proceedings.

Bridge McFarland partner Jonathan Doughty, who heads the firm's serious injury department, said the subsequent trials at the High Court and Court of Appeal on this preliminary issue involved complex questions of jurisdiction.

He said: "Both sides called experts in Saudi Arabian law and there were many complicated issues to address but the decision eventually turned on whether any case brought by the men in Saudi Arabia would have been heard by the Shari'ah courts or under the Kingdom's Labour Law. Essentially, Shari'ah law does not recognise the concept of time limitation on a claim whereas the Labour Law sets a deadline of one year for starting proceedings."

"We were able to demonstrate that the case could have been heard in the Shari'ah courts and so the time-bar did not apply."

"I am delighted to say that the judgement means that our clients' fight for compensation for the injuries they received can go ahead with some expectation of success. The claims will proceed with the English courts applying Saudi Islamic law to substantive issues."

Bridge McFarland has an international reputation in personal injury law and marine law and regularly deals with cases involving other jurisdictions, including recent cases arising in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Namibia and Australia as well as on vessels at sea, diving claimsand offshore installations. The firm has ten offices in Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and Humberside.

The firm also has national recognition working with the victims of brain injury, birth injury and spinal injury.

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