Chapter VIII
CONTRACT FOR CARRIAGE OF PASSENGERS AND BAGGAGE BY SEA
Article 200. Carriage of passengers and baggage
1. Contract for carriage of passengers and baggage by sea refers to the contract entered into between the carrier and the passenger under which the carrier employs the ship to carry this passenger and his baggage from the port of departure to the port of arrival and collect remuneration for such carriage and freight for carriage of baggage paid by that passenger.
2. Carrier refers to a person who concludes by himself, or authorizes other person to conclude the contract for carriage of passengers and baggage by sea with passengers.
3. Actual carrier refers to a person entrusted by the carrier to perform the whole or a part of carriage of passengers and baggage by sea.
4. Passenger refers to a person carried on board the ship under the contract for carriage of passengers, or a person permitted by the carrier to take his live animals or means of transport on board the ship under the contract for carriage of goods.
5. Luggage refers to articles or means of transport carried under the contract for carriage of passengers by sea, except for the following cases:
a) Articles and means of transport carried under the contract for carriage of goods
b) Live animals.
6. Hand baggage refers to baggage that a passenger keeps inside their stateroom or is put under their own supervision, preservation and control.
Article 201. Document on carriage of passengers and baggage
1. Document on carriage of passengers and baggage includes:
a) Ship pass or ticket refers to evidence to show that a contract for carriage of passengers has been concluded;
b) Baggage claim form refers to evidence to show that a passenger’s baggage has been consigned to the ship.
2. The carrier shall be entitled to replace a ship pass by an equivalent document in the event that a passenger is carried by a ship other than a dedicated passenger ship.
3. The carrier shall provide fare exemption, reduction, priority and pass return policies and freight charged for carriage of baggage.
Article 202. Rights and obligations of passengers
1. A passenger shall be entitled to rights and benefits associated with class-specific tickets and shall not be liable for charge for carriage of hand baggage of which weight and category is governed by regulations set out by the carrier.
2. A passenger is obliged to submit to the ship master’s commands, observe rules and regulations or instructions on board the ship and comply with directions of responsible officers and seafarers.
3. Agreements on limitation of a passenger’s rights, or relief from or reduction of liabilities of the carrier as referred to in this Chapter are all void and null.
Article 203. Carrier’s obligations and rights
1. The carrier is obliged to exercise due diligence to ensure the ship's seaworthiness including requirements relating to crew members, necessary equipment and supplies which must be satisfied from the start of voyage and through the entire transportation process to the port of arrival.
2. The carrier is bound to devotedly take care of and protect passengers and their baggage from the time when passengers are received on board the ship to the time when passengers and their baggage have left the ship at the port of arrival in a safe manner; pay all expenses incurred from picking up, providing passengers with meals and drinks as well as daily services in certain special case in which unexpected events occur during the ship voyage.
3. The carrier is bound to buy insurance in respect of his civil liability for passengers.
4. The carrier shall be vested with the right to refuse to perform the contract of carriage without having to be liable for any compensation on condition that one of the following events occurs:
a) Wars or other events may lead to any threat of arrest of the ship.
b) The port of departure or arrival is declared subject to blockade;
c) The ship is arrested or temporarily detained under the decision of the competent authority through no fault of contracting parties;
d) The ship is requisitioned by the Government;
dd) Departure of passengers from the port of embarkation or arrival of passengers in the port of disembarkation is subject to a prohibition order.
5. Where the carrier refuses to perform the contract of carriage according to the provisions of paragraph 4 of this Article prior to departure, he is obliged to refund the ticket cost and freight rate charged for carriage of baggage to passengers.
Where the ship has already been departed, the carrier shall be bound to refund passengers a part of ticket cost based on the ratio of such ticket cost to the travel distance which has not been covered; concurrently, shall be obliged to carry passengers back to the port of departure at his own expense or pay an equivalent sum of compensation to passengers.
6. Where a passenger fails to get on board the ship within the stipulated time, even though the ship enters into a port during voyage, the carrier shall be entitled to refund the ticket cost which has been paid.
7. The carrier shall be accorded the right to delay the departure time, change the ship route, port of embarkation or disembarkation in the event that sanitary and phytosanitary conditions existing at the place of departure, arrival or along the transportation route are not favorable, and any other situation arises beyond his control. Contingent on the request of passengers, the carrier shall be liable for costs incurred by carrying passengers back to the port of embarkation or compensation paid passengers for actual reasonable loss.
8. Provisions set forth in paragraph 7 of this Article shall not limit passengers’ rights to refuse to perform the contract of carriage.
Article 204. Liability of the carrier and actual carrier in carriage of passengers
Liabilities of the carrier and actual carrier in carriage of passengers by sea shall be governed under regulations laid down in Article 173 hereof.
Article 205. Discharge of the carrier’s liabilities for arrest of passengers
The carrier shall be relieved of liabilities for any passenger’s being arrested by the competent authority of the port where the ship enters during the period of voyage through their own fault.
Article 206. Imposition of actions on stowaways
1. Stowaway refers to the person who has embarked onboard the ship when that ship stays at the port or the location within the port boundary without consent from the carrier, ship master or the responsible person and continues to stay on board the ship after the ship's departure from the port or the location within the port boundary.
2. Stowaways shall be obliged to pay a full amount of charge for the distance within which they have carried and a sum of fine which is equal to such charge payable.
3. The ship master shall be vested with authority to force such stowaways to disembark from the ship or get onto another ship to return them to the port where they got on board the ship and notify competent regulatory agencies of their name, age and nationality of these stowaways, the place of their embarkation and their hiding place on board the ship.
4. Where stowaways are allowed to continue their trip, they must buy tickets and have rights and obligations which are similar to these of other passengers.
Article 207. Carrier’s liabilities for compensation for loss or damage
1. The carrier shall be charged with liabilities for compensation for any loss or damage arising out of passenger’s death, injury or other harm to health and lost or damaged baggage in the event that incidents leading to such loss or damage during journey are at the fault of the carrier, his servants or agents and occur within the scope of his assigned duties.
Fault of the carrier, his servants or agents is deemed obvious, except when they manage to prove that passenger's death, injury or suffering from other harm to passenger’s health or loss of or damage to their hand luggage is resulted from ship collision, wreck, destruction, stranding, explosion, fire, any defect or latent defects.
Fault of the carrier, his servants or agents is deemed obvious, except when they manage to prove that loss of or damage to other kinds of baggage is not attributable to causes to produce such loss or damage.
In other circumstances, the burden of proof of fault shall lay on the claimant.
2. The burden of proof of loss or damage and amount of loss or damage resulted from ship collision, wreck, destruction, grounding, explosion, fire or defects during journey shall lay on the claimant.
Article 208. Process of carrying passengers and baggage
1. The process of carrying passengers by sea starts from the embarkation of these passengers on board the ship and ends after the disembarkation of these passengers from the ship, including carriage of passengers from the mainland to the ship and in opposite direction on condition that the charge for such carriage has been included in the ship fare.
2. The process of carrying passenger’s hand baggage shall be subject to regulations similar to those laid down in paragraph 1 of this Article. The process of carrying baggage, except hand baggage, starts from the time when the carrier, his servants or agents receive such baggage at the port of passenger embarkation and ends after the delivery of such baggage to passengers at the port of passenger disembarkation.
Article 209. Limitation of liabilities of the carrier of passengers and baggage
1. The liability of the carrier for the circumstance of a passenger’s death, injury or other health-related damage shall not exceed 46,666 units of account per a contract of passenger and baggage carriage whereby total compensation amount is not allowed to exceed 25,000,000 units of account; in respect of circumstances under which the Court has judged that payment of such compensation is made on a periodic basis, this total compensation amount does not exceed limits referred to in this paragraph.
2. The liability of the carrier for loss of or damage to hand baggage is limited to an amount of 833 units of account per a passenger under a contract for carriage of passenger and baggage.
3. The liability of the carrier for loss of or damage to a shipping unit including all of baggage carried thereon is limited to an amount of 3,333 units of account per a shipping unit under a contract for carriage of passenger and baggage.
4. The liability of the carrier for loss of or damage to baggage types other than those defined in paragraph 2 and 3 of this Article is limited to an amount of 1,200 units of account per a passenger under a contract for carriage of passenger and baggage.
5. The carrier and passenger may enter into a negotiation on reducing the liability of the carrier by an amount which is limited to 117 units of account in the event of damage to a shipping unit and to 13 units of account per a passenger in the event of loss of or damage to other types of baggage.
Article 210. Loss of benefit of limitation of liabilities
1. The carrier is not entitled to the right of the limitation of liability provided for in Article 209 hereof if it is proved that the loss, damage is resulted from an act or omission of the carrier done with the intent to cause such loss, damage, or recklessly and with knowledge that such loss, damage would probably result.
2. Regulations set forth in paragraph 1 of this Article shall be applied similarly to the carrier's servants or agents.
Article 211. Loss of or damage to precious articles or valuable property
The carrier shall be liable for compensating for loss of or damage to precious articles, money, valuable papers, art pieces and other valuable property provided that the passenger has already notified the ship master or officer charged with taking care of baggage of the nature and value thereof for safekeeping purposes.
Article 212. Baggage detention
1. The carrier shall be vested with the right of detention of baggage of a passenger if that passenger has yet to pay a full amount of debts to secure his legitimate benefits until such passenger fulfills his debt obligations or provides sound and sufficient security.
2. The carrier shall be vested with the right to unload unclaimed baggage on to the shore, send them to be kept in the safe and appropriate place and notify the passenger or his authorized person of this. Every cost and fee incurred shall be covered by the passenger.
Article 213. Notification of loss of or damage to baggage
1. Passengers must notify in writing the carrier or his agents of any loss of or damage to their baggage under the following circumstances:
a) Notification of visible damage to hand baggage must be sent before or during the disembarkation of passengers;
b) Notification of visible damage to baggage other than hand baggage must be delivered before or right at the time of delivery of baggage;
c) Notification of invisible loss of or damage to baggage must be sent within the maximum period of 15 days from the date on which passengers disembarked from the ship or baggage should have been delivered to passengers.
2. Where a passenger fails to comply with regulations laid down in paragraph 1 of this Article, delivery and receipt of such baggage that remains intact is deemed complete, unless otherwise proved.
3. Passengers are not obliged to send a written notification if, upon delivery and receipt of such baggage, the carrier and passenger together conduct inspection or examination of such baggage.
Article 214. Statute of limitation for submission of a claim concerning carriage of passengers and baggage
1. Statute of limitation for submission of a claim for compensation for loss resulted from a passenger's death, injury or suffering from other health-related damage and loss or damage to baggage lasts for 02 years.
2. The statute of limitation for submission of a claim referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article is calculated by the following manner:
a) In respect of a passenger's injury, the statute of limitation for submission of a claim begins on the date of passenger's disembarkation;
b) In respect of a passenger's death occurring during journey, the statute of limitation for submission of a claim begins on the date on which such passenger should have left the ship.
Where a passenger’s injury occurring during journey results in the death of this passenger after his disembarkation from the ship, the statute of limitation for submission of a claim begins on the date of this passenger's death and is restricted to 03 years from the date of his disembarkation from the ship;
c) Where loss of or damage to baggage occurs, the statute of limitation for submission of a claim begins on the date on which the passenger disembarks from the ship or should have left the ship, whichever is later.
3. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article on temporary suspension or stop of the statute of limitation for submission of a claim for compensation, the statute of limitation for submission of a claim is not allowed to exceed 03 years from the date on which a passenger has left the ship or should have left the ship, whichever is later.
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Bộ luật hàng hải Việt Nam 2015 (Bản Word)
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