The “speed” with which the administration of justice in Cyprus is moving is proverbial. A lawsuit for an accident in May 2006 with a boat in Ayia Napa, fifteen years later, not only has not been tried, but it has not yet been decided if and when it will be tried!
And all this because it was not possible to decide whether the boat carrying passengers for a tour is a ship within the meaning of the law or something else. A lawsuit was filed, pre-trial objections followed, the District Court ruled that the boat was a ship and therefore had no jurisdiction and dismissed the lawsuit. An appeal was lodged and the Supreme Court ruled that the preliminary rulings should not have been heard, and the action was therefore dismissed. Now the case goes back to the District Court, which will have to consider whether the boat was a ship or not!
The accident”
On May 9, 2006, a woman had paid for tickets for her, her partner and her two minor children for a boat tour of the Ayia Napa area. Initially, the lawsuit was filed against the owner of the boat, and later the man who operated the boat was added as a defendant. It had already been five years since the incident. The woman claimed that while she was on the boat, “it crashed violently into the sea with great speed and was violently thrown upwards and / or the front part where she was sitting, was violently thrown upwards, as a result of which she was also thrown upwards. and to return violently to the wooden seat which was moving violently and vice versa “. Simply put, there was a wave and the boat was moving in the opposite direction, causing it to rise and fall abruptly and to be thrown into the air and the complainant to fall again with force on the wooden seats.
Damn it from the beginning
The Supreme Court, after examining the appeal of the complainant, ruled that “the first instance interim decision dated. 27.2.2014 was not based on indisputable factual facts, and therefore it should not have been decided to adjudicate the issues raised, which then covered whether the specific boat was a ship within the meaning of the law “. Following this, the dismissed lawsuit is revived and goes back to the District Court for trial. The Supreme Court notes, however, that it has not been decided “whether or not the District Court has jurisdiction to hear the case. Consequently, it remains open whether a reef-level vessel constitutes a vessel used in navigation “. Simply put, it is unknown in how many years there will be a conclusion as to whether a boat is a ship or not.
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