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SEAFARERS' UNION OF RUSSIA
A NON-UNIONIZED SEAFARER
IS AN UNPROTECTED SEAFARER
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The Nakhodka City Court ruled in favor the daughter of the electrical officer who died on board the fishing freezing trawler “Hercules” and awarded a compensation in the amount of RUB2 million.
Vasily Savelyev, the lawyer of the Far Eastern Territorial Organization of the Seafarers’ Union of Russia advocated her interests at court.
The woman turned to the SUR for assistance and told the following. Her father was hired on the Rosrybflot LLC -owned vessel Hercules (Russian flag) in February 2021. The accident occurred at the pier of a shiprepair dock in the port of Busan (South Korea) in July of the same year. On that day at 08:00 in the morning the Chief Engineer instructed the Electrician to inspect the cable-lines in the fish plant on board the “Hercules” . Another Electrician was assigned to assist him. The latter heard the cry of the injured seafarer on the starboard side at about 11:00. According to him, the Electrical Officer’s legs began to give way and he fell on the deck. The first aid was provided to the injured person but failed to be any success. The paramedics arrived at the scene could not help either. At 12:00 ship time the Korean authorities reported via a ship agent that the seafarer had died without regaining consciousness.
The Commission for Investigation the accident on board the ship failed to establish the cause of the incident: according to its members, there was no power supply on the vessel at the time of the seafarer’s death. The perpetrators were not determined. It is noteworthy that the body, without the consent of the relatives, was embalmed in South Korea and transferred to Vladivostok, that’s why it was absolutely impossible to make the second autopsy in Russia.
However, the death certificate stated that the cause was believed to be electric shock. An electric shock during electrical work was noted in the response of the Consul General of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Korea to the daughter's request. A similar version was indicated in the response of the police of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
In addition, the woman had a post-mortem photograph of the seafarer with electrotags - a medical term for the input and output of electric current.
“In fact, the relatives of the deceased had the legal right to demand compensation for moral damage from the employer. This right is enshrined in Art. 1079 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation,” - Vasily Savelyev said.
Indeed, legal entities and citizens whose activities are associated with increased danger to others are obliged to compensate for the harm caused by a source of increased danger unless they prove that it has been a result of force majeure or the intent of the victim.
In this regard, the plaintiff's side insisted that electrical installation work is, of course, an activity of increased danger and, on this basis demanded compensation for non-pecuniary damage.
Today the Nakhodka City Court ruled in favor of the electrician's relatives.
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