Merchant Shipping Act (Cap. 234), article 159

159. (1) If any of the expenses attendant on the illness, hurt or injury of a seaman or apprentice, which are to be paid under this Act by the master or owner, or bareboat charterer are paid by any authority on behalf of the Government of Malta, or if any other expenses in respect of the illness, hurt or injury of any seaman or apprentice whose wages are not accounted for under this Act to that authority, are so paid, those expenses shall be repaid to the authority by the master or owner or bareboat charterer of the ship. (2) Save as otherwise provided for in article 37D (3), if the expenses are not so repaid, the amount thereof shall with costs be a charge upon the ship and be recoverable from the master, the owner or the bareboat charterer of the ship at the time the action is brought or, where the ship has been lost, the owner of the ship at the time of the loss, or, where the ship has been transferred, either from the owner of the ship at the time the action is brought or from the person who was the owner of the ship at the time of the transfer, at the suit of the person defraying the expenses or as a debt due to the Government of Malta. (3) In any proceeding for such recovery, a certificate of the facts signed by that authority, together with such vouchers (if any) as the case requires, shall be sufficient proof that the said expenses were duly paid by that authority. Certificate required where seaman is left behind. Amended by:  XIII. 1983.5; XXII. 2000.2.