Section 129

When a deposit is made with the wharfinger or warehouseman, the person making the deposit (called in this section the depositor) may, within 15 days after making it, give to the wharfinger or warehouseman written notice to retain it, stating in the notice the sum (if any) which the depositor admits to be payable to the shipowner, or (as the case may be) that the depositor does not admit any sum to be so payable, but if no such notice is given, the wharfinger or warehouseman may, at the end of the 15 days, pay the sum deposited over to the shipowner.

If a notice is given under subsection (1), the wharfinger or warehouseman must immediately apprise the shipowner of it, and must pay or tender to the shipowner out of the sum deposited the sum (if any) admitted by the notice to be payable, and must retain the balance, or if no sum is admitted to be payable the whole of the sum deposited, for 30 days from the date of the notice.

At the end of those 30 days, unless legal proceedings have in the meantime been instituted by the shipowner against the owner of the goods to recover the balance or sum, or otherwise for the settlement of any dispute which may have arisen between them concerning the freight or other charges as aforesaid, and written notice of those proceedings has been served on the wharfinger or warehouseman, the wharfinger or warehouseman must pay the balance or sum to the owner of the goods.

A wharfinger or warehouseman is, by any payment under this section, discharged from all liability in respect thereof.

In this section, “legal proceedings” is deemed to include arbitration.