End of the line for the Monaco 21/9/13
An abandoned boat at the centre of an expensive, ongoing ten year bitter legal wrangle over her ownership is being broken-up in Stornoway harbour.
Her disputed owners don’t want her, nobody will buy her and Stornoway Port Authority is desperate to get rid of the sunken MV Monaco.
The rotting, leaking, converted fishing vessel has been robbed and vandalised on numerous occasions since she arrived in 2002.
Legal bills have been racked up as lawyers continue to argue over the worthless wreck which is hardly fit for firewood.
Stornoway Port Authority has now reached the end of the line with the boat and is forking out for her to be broken up. Plank by plank, the boat will be torn apart and the waste dumped in land fill.
The saga dates back to when Murdo Macdonald of Erista, Uig, Lewis, purchased the vessel for £75,000 from Robert and Elizabeth Pollock. He planned to use her for coastal tourist cruises around the Hebrides.
But on the trip from Oban to Lewis, he discovered a serious engine problem resulting in her leaking a lot of oil.
He tied her up in Stornoway harbour and telephone Robert Pollock cancelling the deal.
The original court case at Oban Sheriff Court had found in Mr Macdonald’s favour but was overturned after the Pollocks appealed.
Mr Macdonald then successfully challenged that appeal decision in the Court of Session
A protracted legal case took a step forward in February 2012 when Scotland’s highest civil court found that the Pollocks sold the Monaco "in the course of a business" so the Sale of Goods Act applied and they were obliged to ensure the vessel was of satisfactory quality.
The court said Murdo Macdonald was wrongly sold a defective boat and was entitled to get his £75,000 back from Robert and Elizabeth Pollock.
It also rejected the view that oil leaks could have been detected if the surveyor had carried out a full examination of the engine.
But the legal row rumbles on as the Pollocks intend to appeal to the Supreme Court.
In the meanwhile, the harbour board invoked its statutory powers to remove the vessel, though the process is painfully slow.
The Monaco sank in September last year and the process was launched to declare her a wreck.