1969-HKRS29-8-36_Part03 — Page 45

Amendment of section 25.

Amendment of section 28.

Addition of new section.

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(3) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any enactment, where written notice of intention to institute proceedings under the provi- sions of paragraph (b) of subsection (1) has been given by an employer to a third party within twelve months of the receipt by the employer of due notice of the accident concerned, no such proceedings shall lapse, or be barred, under any enactment relating to the limitation of actions, until after the expiration of a period of three months from the date upon which a claim to compensation in respect of such injury has been settled under section 16 or finally determined by a court.

(4) Where notice is given to the employer under subsection (2) and the provisions of section 23 apply. the employer shall give notice thereof to any person who may be called on to pay an indemnity under that section.".

20. Section 25 of the principal Ordinance is amended by deleting subsection (1) and substituting the following-

(1) Where any injury is caused to a workman by the negligence, breach of statutory duty or other wrongful act or omission of the employer, or of any person for whose act or default the employer is responsible, nothing in this Ordinance shall limit or in any wise affect any civil liability of the employer independently of this Ordinance:

Provided that any damages awarded to a workman in an action at common law or under any enactment in respect of any such negligence, breach of statutory duty, wrongful act or omission, shall be reduced by the value, as decided by the Court, of any compensation which has been paid or is payable under the provisions of this Ordinance in respect of the injury sustained by the workman.”.

21. Section 28 of the principal Ordinance is amended, in subsection (3), by deleting "or mainly".

21A. The principal Ordinance is amended by adding the following new section after section 28-

**Application

to persons employed

on foreign

ships.

28A. (1) If the employer submits or has agreed to submit to the jurisdiction of the Court, then, notwithstanding that the accident causing the personal injury occurred outside Hong Kong. this Ordinance shall apply, subject to the modifications in subsections (2), (3) and (4), to seamen and apprentices to the sea service who are workmen within the meaning of this

67 & $ Vkl. e. 60.)

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Ordinance and, having been recruited or engaged in Hong Kong, are members of the crew of a foreign ship.

(2) The notice of accident and the application for compensation may be given or made to the master of the ship as if he were the employer, but where the accident occurred and the incapacity commenced on board the ship it shall not be necessary to give any notice of the accident.

(3) In the case of the death of a seaman or apprentice to whom this section applies, the applice- tion for compensation shall be made within two years after the death occurred or, where the ship bas been or is deemed to have been lost with all hands, within two years after the date on which the ship was, or is deemed to have been, so lost.

(4) Whenever in any proceedings under this Ordinance the testimony of any witness is required in relation to the subject matter of the proceedings, then, upon due proof that the witness cannot be found in Hong Kong, any deposition which the witness may have previously made on oath in relation to the same subject matter before any justice or magistrale in Her Majesty's dominions or in any place where Her Majesty exercises jurisdiction or before any British Consular Officer elsewhere and which, if the proceed. ings had been under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, would have been admissible in such proceedings by virtue of sections 691 and 695 of that Act, shall be admissible in ovidence subject to similar conditions as are laid down in the said sections 691 and 695.

(5) In this section-

"foreign ship" means any ship other than a Hong Kong ship as defined in subsection (4) of section 28;

"scaman" has the meaning that it has for the purposes

of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894.".

22. Section 29 of the principal Ordinance is amended— (a) by being renumbered as subsection (1) thereof; (b) by inserting after "shall" the following-

►

subject to subsection (2),”;

(c) by deleting the colon after "Ordinance" and substituting

a full stop; and

Amendment of section 29.