Total was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of euros in damages yesterday after being found guilty of negligence over the 1999 oil spill that soiled 400km of coastline in northern France.

In a judgment that could change shipping rules in French waters, a tribunal in Paris fined the French oil giant €375,000 (£280,000) and ordered it to pay a share of €192 million damages.

Total’s lawyers advised it to appeal against a ruling that they said could force charterers to carry out checks on every ship that the company hired.

Total’s share price closed down €1 at €54.49 in the wake of the ruling.

Ecologists welcomed the decision, which set a legal precedent by ordering the defendants to pay damages for the birds, seals and other wildlife caught in the oil slick.

Corinne Lepage, an environmental activist and lawyer representing many of the 101 civil parties in the case, said: “This is an important signal to an entire profession: you can’t get away with using rubbish ships any more. No one will be able to escape their responsibilities.”

Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, the president of the French Bird Protection League, which was awarded €800,000 in damages, said: “This is a moment of great happiness. This is unprecedented in France. It’s historic.”

The slick formed when the Erika, a rusting, 25-year-old tanker, broke up off the French coast in December 1999, spilling 20,000 tonnes of fuel into the sea in what became one of France’s worst environmental calamities.

Jean-Baptiste Parlos, the presiding judge, said that Total was guilty of carelessness for using an ageing and badly maintained vessel. Registro Italiano Navale, the Italian maritime certification company that declared the Erika seaworthy, was also found guilty, along with Giuseppe Savarese, its owner, and Antonio Pollara, its manager. The court said that they had joint responsibility with Total for paying the damages to the civil parties, which include the French State, regional councils and fishermen.

Karun Mathur, the Indian captain of the Maltese-registered tanker, was acquitted.

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