Holyhead Marina, the 300-boat mooring by the busy Port of Holyhead on the Isle of Anglesey, is a dock, the Court of Appeal ruled today (3 November), extending an earlier ruling from the Property Court.
The case is critical to the owners of the marina, who are in a legal battle with owners of boats and ships damaged and destroyed when Storm Emma hit the isle in March 2018.
Millions of pounds’ worth of boats were destroyed when hurricane-force winds struck the port, throwing commercial and leisure boats against rocks and breaking pontoons.
According to legislation dating from 1900, owners of docks can limit their liability. Therefore, if Holyhead Marina is a dock, its liability for the damage done will be limited to around £550,000. If not, its liability will be unlimited, and could more than 10 times more.
The case reached the Court of Appeal via the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales. In that court, judge Mr Justice Teare ruled that, while the marina itself wasn’t a dock, the pontoons that make up the marina are. As a result, the marina owners could limit their liability.
The owners of the boats appealed. In a hearing last week, their lawyers argued that the judge was wrong to break down the structure of the marina to rule against them.
However, in a ruling handed down today, Sir Geoffrey Vos said that Mr Justice Teare’s analysis wasn’t only erudite, it didn’t go far enough.
“It is an undoubted fact that a collection of pontoons is plural and a marina is singular,” Vos MR said in his ruling.
“However, it does not seem to me to follow that a marina made up of a collection of individual pontoons cannot form a single whole landing place, stage or jetty. As I have said, both the pontoons themselves and the marina as a whole fall within these terms in the definition.
“It follows from what I have said above that, had marinas, pontoons and moorings existed in 1900, they would have fallen within the definition of a dock in section 2(4) of the MSA 1900.
“I would dismiss this appeal,” he said.
According to the ruling, docks have historically been allowed to limit their liability in Britain to encourage landowners with access to water to build, develop and run docks, to help encourage domestic and international trade.
Holyhead Marina Ltd v Mr Peter Farrer and All Other Persons Claiming or Being Entitled to Claim Damages in Connection With Storm “Emma” Striking Holyhead Marina on 1 and 2 March 2018
Court of Appeal (Vos MR, Males LJ, Stuart Smith LM) 3 November 2021
