ARTICLE 6. When there are several persons suffering damages in the same accident, the interested parties must present or give notice of their claims within a maximum period of six months from the day of the accident; after the expiration of this period compensation settlements may lawfully be made, and the said interested parties can exercise their rights only on such amount as shall not have been distributed. ARTICLE 7. If actions are brought by different injured parties, by virtue of the preceding articles and article 13, before the courts of different states, the defendant may, before each of said courts, submit a statement of the total of the claims and obligations, with a view to preventing the limit of his liability being exceeded. ARTICLE 8. (1) Each contracting state agrees to take in its legislation the measures and sanctions necessary in order that no aircraft recorded on its registers can navigate over the territory of another contracting state without being insured against the damages contemplated in the present convention and in the limits fixed in article 4 above. (2) However the legislation of each state may exempt the aircraft from this insurance, wholly or in part, if a sufficient guaranty is given, in the form of a deposit in specie or a bank guaranty, for the payment of said damages. (3) The insurance must be taken out with a public insurance institution or an insurer especially approved for this risk by the state of registry of the aircraft. In case of a deposit or a bank guaranty, payment must be made into a public fund or a bank approved for this purpose by the said state, [or] the guaranty given by a bank approved for this purpose by said state. ARTICLE 9. (1) The sureties meeting the conditions prescribed in the present convention will be recognized as sufficient by all the contracting states.* (2) The kind, amount and duration of the sureties contemplated in article 8 of the present convention shall be evidenced either by an official certificate or by an official notation on one of the ship's documents. This certificate or this document must be produced whenever demanded. *The Committee reserves the question as to whether the amount of the insurance, the deposit or the guaranty might be less than the amount of the limitation of liability contemplated in article 4. [Footnote in the original.] (3) Said certificate or document shall attest the regular situation of the aircraft with respect to the obligations of the present convention. (4) If none of said documents can be produced, if the document is irregular or the guaranty expired, the aircraft may be held by the competent authorities of one of the contracting states until the necessary steps have been taken to regularize its situation. ARTICLE 10. (1) The cash deposit and the bank guaranty must be assigned specially and exclusively, under the conditions provided in the present convention, to the compensation of third parties who have suffered injury. (2) The above said sureties must guarantee in all the contracting states the risks contemplated by the present convention. (3) They must be brought up to their full amount as soon as the sums which they represent become subject to reduction by the amount of a payment for compensation. ARTICLE 11. The operator shall not be entitled to avail himself of the provisions of the present convention which limit his liability: 1. If the damage results from his own fault, 2. If he has not furnished one of the sureties contemplated in the present convention. ARTICLE 12. The injured party shall have, under the conditions contemplated in the present convention, a direct recourse against the insurer of the aircraft which caused the damage. ARTICLE 13 (former article 9). The following are competent to hear actions for compensation of damages, in the territory of each of the contracting states: the judicial authorities of the domicile of the defendant and those of the place where the damage was caused. ARTICLE 14 (former article 10). (1) These actions must be brought within two years from the day of the damage. If the injured party proves that he has been unable to have knowledge either of the damage, or of the identity of the person liable, the period of limitation shall begin from the day on which said party could have knowledge thereof; (2) In all cases the action shall be barred four years after the date when the damage was caused; (3) The method of calculating the limitation period, as well as the causes of suspension and interruption of the limitation period, shall be determined by the law of the court before which the action is brought. ARTICLE 15 (former article 11). In case of the death of the person liable, an action for damages within the limits prescribed by the present convention may be brought against the rightful claimants to his estate. ARTICLE 16 (former article 12). The present convention shall be applicable whenever damage has been caused by an aircraft of one of the contracting states in another contracting state, or, on the high seas, to the ship of another contracting state as well as to the persons and property on said ship. RECENT PUBLICATIONS During September, the following publications, of direct interest in connection with Treaty Information, were published by the Department of State and may be secured from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.: Shufeldt Claim: Claim of the United States of America on be- Chinese Courts in the International Settlement at Shanghai: Reciprocal Recognition of Load-Line Certificates: Arrangement Arbitration: Treaty between the United States of America and Egypt. Signed August 27, 1929; proclaimed August 25, 1932. (Treaty Series, No. 850.) 3 pp. 5¢. Conciliation: Treaty between the United States of America and Egypt. Signed August 27, 1929; proclaimed August 25, 1932. (Treaty Series, No. 851.) 3 pp. 54. O |