Section 184: Recovery of expenses from owner

(1)
If any of the expenses attendant on the illness, hurt or injury of a seaman or cadet to be paid under this part by the owner or master of the ship to which the seaman or cadet belongs are paid by any authority on behalf of the Federal Government or if other expenses in respect of the illness, hurt or injury of a seaman or cadet who belongs to a Nigerian ship and whose wages are not accounted for under this part to that authority, are so paid, those expenses shall be repaid to the authority by the owner or master of the ship.
(2)
Where expenses are not repaid as required by subsection (1) of this section, the amount of the expenses with costs, shall be a charge upon the ship and shall be recoverable from-
(a)
the master or owner of the ship for the time being;
(b)
where the ship is lost, from the person who was the owner of the ship at the time of the loss; or
(c)
where a registered Nigerian ship has been transferred to a person not qualified to own such a ship, from the owner for the time being or from the person who was the owner of the ship at the time of the transfer, as a debt due to the Federal Government by ordinary process of law or in the court and in the manner in which wages may be recovered under this part by a seaman or cadet.
(3)
In any proceedings for recovery under this section, a certificate of the facts, signed by the authority which paid for expenses referred to in this section, together with such vouchers, if any as the case require, shall be sufficient proof that the expenses in respect of which the proceedings instituted were duly paid for by that authority.