Carriage By Air Act [Chapter 13:04]

Chapter 13:04

 

Carriage By Air Act

Act 50/1964; R.G.N. 217/1970.

ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

Section

1. Short title.
3. Conventions to have force of law.
4. Designation of High Contracting Parties.
5. Fatal accidents.
6. Division of amount recovered.
7. Limitation of liability.
8. Time for bringing proceedings.
9. Power to exclude aircraft in use for military purposes.
10. Actions against High Contracting Parties.
11. Application to carriage by air not governed by Conventions.
12. Application to State.

FIRST SCHEDULE: The Warsaw Convention with the Amendments Made in it by the Hague Protocol. SECOND SCHEDULE: Supplementary Convention.

AN ACT to enable effect to be given to the Warsaw Convention of 1929, as amended by the Hague Protocol of 1955, concerning international carriage by air; to enable effect to be given to the Convention supplementary to the Warsaw Convention, for the unification of certain rules relating to international carriage by air performed by a person other than the contracting carrier; to enable the rules contained in those Conventions to be applied, with or without modification, in other cases and, in particular, to non-international carriage by air; and to provide for matters connected with or incidential to the foregoing.

[Date of commencement: 11th May, 1934.]

1     Short title

This Act may be cited as the Carriage by Air Act [Chapter 13:04].

2     Interpretation

• In this Act—

“Convention” means the Warsaw Convention of 1929, as amended by the Hague Protocol of 1955, concerning international carriage by air;

“court” includes, in an arbitration allowed by the Convention, an arbitrator;

“Supplementary Convention” means the Convention supplementary to the Warsaw Convention, for the unification of certain rules relating to international carriage by air performed by a person other than the contracting carrier, signed at Guadalajara, Mexico, in 1961;

“wrongdoer” means a person who has been or might be held liable in delict for loss or damage.

• In the Supplementary Convention, “the Warsaw Convention” means the Warsaw Convention of 1929, as amended by the Hague Protocol of 1955, concerning international carriage by air.

3     Conventions to have force of law

The Convention, a translation of which is set out in the First Schedule, and the Supplementary Convention, a translation of which is set out in the Second Schedule, shall, so far as they relate to the rights and liabilities of carriers, carriers’ servants and agents, passengers, consignors, consignees and other persons, and subject to the provisions of this Act, have the force of law in Zimbabwe in relation to any carriage by air to which those Conventions apply, irrespective of the nationality of the aircraft performing that carriage.

4     Designation of High Contracting Parties

• The President may from time to time, by proclamation in a statutory instrument, declare who are the High Contracting Parties to the Convention, in respect of what territories they are respectively parties and to what extent they have availed themselves of the Additional Protocol at the end of the Convention.
• Paragraph (2) of Article 40A of the Convention shall not be read as extending references in the Convention to the territory of a High Contracting Party, except such as are references to the territory of any state, whether a High Contracting Party or not, to include any territory in respect of which that High Contracting Party is not a

party.

• A proclamation under this section shall, except in so far as it has been superseded by a subsequent proclamation, be conclusive evidence of the matters so declared.
• A proclamation under this section may contain such transitional and other consequential provisions as appear to the President to be expedient.

5     Fatal accidents

The reference in Article 17 of the Convention to the liability of a carrier for damage sustained in the event of the death of a passenger shall be construed as including liability to such persons as are entitled, apart from this Act, to sue the carrier in respect of the death.

6     Division of amount recovered

Subject to section eight, in any action brought in Zimbabwe to enforce liability under Article 17 of the Convention in respect of the death of any one passenger the amount recovered shall be divided between the successful claimants in such manner as the court may deem just.

7     Limitation of liability

(1) It is hereby declared that the limitations on liability in Article 22 of the Convention apply whatever the nature of the proceedings by which liability may be enforced and that, in particular—

• those limitations apply where proceedings are brought by a wrongdoer to obtain a contribution from another wrongdoer; and
• the limitation for each passenger in paragraph (1) of that Article applies to the aggregate liability of the carrier in all proceedings which may be brought against him in Zimbabwe together with any proceedings brought against him outside Zimbabwe.
• A court before which proceedings are brought to enforce a liability which is limited by Article 22 of the Convention may at any stage of the proceedings make any such order as appears to the court to be just and equitable in view of that Article, and of any other proceedings which have been, or are likely to be, commenced in Zimbabwe or elsewhere to enforce the liability in whole or in part.
• Without prejudice to subsection (2), a court before which proceedings are brought to enforce a liability which is limited by Article 22 of the Convention shall, where the liability is, or may be, partly enforceable in other proceedings in Zimbabwe or elsewhere, have jurisdiction to award an amount less than the court would have awarded if the limitation applied solely to the proceedings before the court, or to make any part of its award conditional on the result of any other proceedings.
• The Minister may from time to time, by statutory instrument, specify the respective amounts which for the purposes of Article 22 of the Convention, and in particular of paragraph (5) of that Article, are to be taken as equivalent to the sums expressed in francs which are mentioned in that Article.
• References in this section to Article 22 of the Convention include, subject to any necessary modifications, references to that Article as applied by Article 25A of the Convention, and references in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) and in subsections (2) and (3) to Article 22 of the Convention include, subject to any necessary modifications, references to Article VI of the Supplementary Convention.