Photo: Sovan Samedy
On April 21, 2018, a ship belonging to the Dutch shipping company ForestWave Navigation was attacked by a group of pirates. At the time, the ship was sailing off the coast of Nigeria, en route to Port Harcourt. Fourteen crew members were on board. Nine of them were taken off the ship by the pirates and held hostage for four weeks in the jungle near the Niger Delta. During the hostage-taking, the group was shot at and lived in extremely poor conditions.
The hostages blamed ForestWave for allowing the hijacking to take place. Despite the fact that the ship was sailing through a high-risk area for piracy, the prescribed safety measures had not been taken. For example, there was no barbed wire around the ship and no escort by patrol boats. ForestWave Navigation had therefore breached its duty of care as an employer and was liable for damages. On behalf of two Ukrainian crew members, we sought a declaration that ForestWave was liable for all damages resulting from the hostage-taking, including lost income, medical expenses, and immaterial damages, and claimed an advance payment on the total compensation.
On November 5, 2021, the subdistrict court ruled that ForestWave is indeed liable for all material and immaterial damage suffered by the crew members as a result of the hijacking and must compensate them for this damage. The conclusion was that ForestWave Navigation had not taken any, or at least insufficient, security measures to protect the crew against an attack by pirates. The subdistrict court awarded an advance payment on the total compensation of US$40,000 per person and ordered ForestWave to pay the costs of the proceedings.
The crew was assisted by Kirsten Boele en Patrick Slob. In the subsequent and ongoing partial dispute and damages proceedings, they are being assisted by Aldert van der Bent.
Aldert van der Bent
This was an intense case that didn't have any precedents. The war with Russia and the limited expertise in Ukraine on PTSD and job opportunities made it even harder to figure out how to handle the damages.
