Widow of 70p-per-hour shipbreaker killed in Bangladesh fall wins landmark case to sue UK tanker owner

Owners of one of the world’s largest supertankers accused of negligence after selling it for $16m before Khalil Mollah’s death

The former owners of the 'Ekta' oil supertanker, formerly known as the 'Maran Centaurus', are facing legal action after a ship-breaker died while working to dismantle it. AFP

The widow of a ship-breaker who fell to his death won a landmark case to sue the British owners of the vessel.

Khalil Mollah died in an accident in March 2018 while working 70-hour weeks for just 70p-per-hour and without protective equipment in the Zuma Enterprise Shipyard in Chattogram, Bangladesh.

He was dismantling the Ekta oil tanker, formerly known as the Maran Centaurus, after it was deliberately run aground on a beach.

Lawyers for Mollah's widow, Hamida Begum, told The National it is an important test case, which ruled that the shipping industry "owes a duty of care" to beach workers even after vessels have been sold. It will apply to all European countries.

“All the big shipping nations of Europe will send hundreds of ships to South Asia,” Oliver Holland, lawyer for Leigh Day said.

“It’s the first time in any European court where it’s been recognised that shipping companies can be found liable for sending their vessels to South Asia when workers are injured or die.”

The UK's High Court in London heard that the owners, Maran (UK), sold it for $16 million to a middleman knowing that if it was going to be scrapped at a 'safer' yard in China the figure would have been nearer $10m and that it owed a duty of care to the worker.

The company argued for the case to be thrown out because they had sold the vessel and were not responsible for the death.

Three judges rejected its appeal and the case will now proceed to trial.

“I consider that the duty of care alleged in this case, although faced with formidable hurdles, cannot be dismissed as fanciful,” Lord Justice Coulson said.

Mr Robert Bright QC, for the defendant, said that it was not the shipowner who sent the ship to Chattogram or who controlled its ultimate destination.

He said there was "no relationship of proximity" between the shipowner and Mollah, that the defendant did not have control over working conditions and if he had not been killed while working on the defendant's ship, "he might just as easily have been killed or injured when working on some other ship".

“He was, said Mr Bright, already at risk every day of his working life,” Lord Justice Males said.

“That is a submission which, in my view, does the defendant no credit.

“A tanker which has come to the end of its working life cannot just be abandoned or scuttled by its owner.

“The choice was straightforward. Either the ship could be sent for dismantling in the relative safety of a dry dock in China or it could be run aground on a beach in the Indian subcontinent to be broken up by hand by workers who were not even provided with rudimentary safety equipment and where fatalities and serious injuries were both common and notorious.

“It might be thought that any responsible owner faced with that choice would opt for safety. But not so. Chinese shipyards would have been prepared to pay $10m for the ship but a buyer in the subcontinent, which did not have to bear the expense or go to the trouble of providing safe conditions for its workers, would pay more.”

His reviews were reiterated by Lord Justice Bean.

“I am not attracted by the argument 'if Mr Mollah had not been killed working on our ship, he could just as easily have been killed or injured working on someone else's',” he said.

“On the claimant's case, the defendant obtained the highest possible price for the vessel and sought to wash their hands of responsibility for anything, however foreseeable, which happened after that.”

The International Labour Organisation says there are "unacceptably high" numbers of deaths in the ship-breaking industry.

Mr Holland said that the industry deliberately sells off its ships through various companies specifically to avoid liability if they do end up on the beaches of South Asia.

Up to 700 large ships are scrapped every year and of the 11 million tonnes of oil tankers demolished in 2018, only 80,000 tonnes were broken up in safer Chinese and Turkish yards.

It is estimated that Chattogram is the graveyard for about 200 large ships a year.

The 300,000-tonne Ekta, which was more than 330 metres long and eight storeys tall, was one of the largest oil tankers yet built when it was launched in 1995.

In November 2009, the vessel and its 28 crew were taken hostage by pirates while travelling to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia with $140m of crude oil.

It was released only after a shootout and the payment of a large ransom.