1953-HKRS28-8-20_Part03 — Page 33

Chik

(Cap. 8)

(Cap. 32)

(Cap. 92)

Application to persons employed on ships.

22

(3) There shall be included amongst the debts which—

(i) under the provisions of section 38 of the Bankruptcy Ordinance are in the distribution of the property or assets of a bankrupt, to be paid in priority to all other debts; and

(ii) under the provisions of section 250 of the Companies Ordinance are, in the winding-up of a company, to be paid in priority to all debts; and

(iii) under section 79 of the Companies Ordinance are to be paid in priority to any claim for principal or interest in respect of debentures,

the amount due in respect of any compensation or liability for compensation accrued before the following dates, that is to say

(a) in the first case, the date of the receiving order;

(b) in the second case, the date of commencement of the

winding-up of the company:

(c) in the third case, the date of the appointment of the receiver or of possession being taken mentioned in the said section 70.

Where the compensation is a periodical payment, the amount due in respect thereof shall, for the purposes of this provision, be taken to be the amount of the lump sum for which the periodical payment could, if redeemable, be redeemed on an application being made for that purpose under the provisions of this Ordinance.

(4) The provisions of subsection (3) shall not apply where the bankrupt or the company has entered into such a contract with insurers as is referred to in subsection (1),

(5) This section shall not apply where a company is wound up voluntarily merely for the purposes of reconstruction or of amalgamation with another company.

28. (1) This Ordinance shall apply to masters, seamen and apprentices to the sea service who are workinen within the mean- ing of this Ordinance and are members of the crew of a Hong Kong ship, subject to the following modifications-

23

(a) the notice of accident and the claim for compensation may, except where the person injured is the master, be given to the master of the ship as if he were the employer, but where the accident happened and the incapacity commenced on board the ship it shall not be necessary for any seaman to give notice of the accident;

or

(b) in the case of the death of the master, seaman

apprentice, the application for compensation shall be made within two years after the occurrence of the death or, where the ship has been or is deemed to have been lost with all hands, within two years of the date on which the ship was, or is deemed to have been, so lost;

(c) whenever in the course of any legal proceeding under this Ordinance the testimony of any witness is required in relation to the subject matter of the proceeding, then, upon due proof that the witness cannot be found in the Colony, any deposition which the witness may have previously made on uath in relation to the same subject matter before any justice or magistrate in Her Majesty's dominions or in any place where Her Majesty exercises jurisdiction or before any British Consular Officer else- where and which, if the proceeding had been under the Merchant Shipping Act, (804, would have bean (57 & 58 admissible in such proceeding by virtue of sections 691 and 695 of that Act, shall be admissible in evidence subject to similar conditions as are laid down in the said sections 6g1 and 695:

(4) in case of the death of a master, Seaman or apprentice leaving no dependants, no compensation shall be payable, if the owner of the ship is, under any law in force for the time being in the Colony relating to merchant ship. ping, liable to pay the expenses of burial;

(e) the periodical payment shall not be payable in respect of the period during which the owner of the ship is, under any law in force for the time being in the Colony relating to merchant shipping, liable to defray the expenses of maintenance of the injured master, scaman or apprentice.

Vlet c. 60)