Asia/Pacific News
Singapore Court of Appeal Overturns Decision on "Wrongful" Ship Arrest Over Unpaid Bunker Bill
A Singapore High Court decision to declare Transocean Oil's arrest of a former STX Pan Ocean-operated boxship "unlawful" has been overturned by the Singapore Court of Appeal, Platts reports.
Transocean originally had the STX Mumbai arrested over unpaid bunker bills back in June of 2013, but a court decision made in June of last year declared the arrest "unlawful" after an arrest was made only two days after the invoices were past due.
At the time, the company said that it would take action as STX Pan Ocean had applied for bankruptcy protection in South Korea.
However, the court of appeal declared this week that "Transocean's claim was wrongly struck out" and that the shipowner "had basis" to make payment, according to the company's lawyers.
The decision could be a landmark one, as this was a "this could set a precedent for future arrests based on anticipatory breach of a bunker invoice," said Transocean lawyer Navinder Singh.
In November Singapore saw a slight uptick in ship arrests following the collapse of OW Bunker and the discovery of an alleged fraud at a Singaporean subsidiary.
