Law:

Section:

(a) Admiralty Jurisdiction of High Courts Ordinance (XLH of 1980)-------S. 3(2)---Marchant Shipping Act (XXI of 1923), S.30(1)---Admiralty suit--­Payment of wages to seaman---Principles for determination---Plaintiff signed Article of Agreement before defendant/Shipping Master to serve in defendant's vessel in capacity of General Steward for 12 months---Subsequently, when defendant vessel was arrested and was sold on order of Court passed in Admiralty suit filed by its mortgagee, plaintiff applied for his wages and Court allowed payment of wages up to the date plaintiff left the vessel---Plaintiff, however, claimed wages up to the date he signed off Article of Agreement alongwith other crews which was denied by the defendant alleging that plaintiff was deserter and never was on board the vessel after he left the vessel--- Validity---Seaman's time of service, no doubt, would end when he signed off Article of Agreement at shipping office, but in that case seaman could manipulate not to sign off Article of Agreement under one pretext or the other and could continue to be regarded in service and entitled to claim wages much beyond period that was originally intended=--Nexus between date on which a seaman's actual period of service on board the vessel ends and his final discharge from service of port of engagement upon signing off from Article of Agreement---Seaman serving in a vessel owned by a foreign national i.e. a foreign flag vessel, reasonable period for signing off from Article of Agreement at shipping office would be maximum of one week from the time of his arrival from abroad of the port of engagement which would mean that even if seaman did not physically sign off from Article of Agreement, he would only be entitled to wages up to one week after arrival from abroad after being discharged' from vessel---When a seaman was discharged from a vessel in Pakistan then said period would be reduced to a maximum of three days---Such period would apply only to seaman who had not signed off due to any reason whatsoever and nothing would prevent a ship owner from arranging signing off earlier than said period---In absence of any proof as to when plaintiff left vessel,…

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/digixyei/sldsystempk.com/view/master-layout/view_case.php on line 492