PARIS (AP) — A Paris court is set to adjudicate on a compensation claim related to the 1994 sinking of an Estonian ferry, which remains one Europe's deadliest maritime disasters.

The court is set to rule Friday on the claim from more than 1,000 survivors and relatives of victims. They are seeking 40.8 million euros ($46 million) from the French agency Bureau Veritas that deemed the ship seaworthy and the German shipbuilder Meyer-Werft.

An investigation that concluded in 1997 found that the locks on the ferry's prow door had not held up to the strain of the waves, causing water to flood the car deck.

The Estonia car ferry, connecting Tallinn and Stockholm, sank Sept. 28, 1994 killing 852 people. It is the second-deadliest peacetime sinking of a European ship after the Titanic.