Court Rules News

South African animal welfare organization NSPCA has applauded a Judgment from the Eastern Cape Division of the High Court, Makhanda, affirming the NSPCA’s ability to screen all animals being readied for loading on the Al Messilah livestock carrier which docked in the East London Harbour on April 2.The exporter, Al Mawashi, working through Page Farming Company, made an application in the High Court on March 29 designed to prevent the NSPCA from marking compromised animals to prevent them from being loaded and to stop NSPCA from screening for pregnant ewes.“Al Mawashi…

The Biden administration on Thursday postponed a Nov. 8 sale of offshore drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico pending the outcome of a lawsuit over oil and gas development and federal protection of an endangered species of whale.The move comes after a U.S. appeals court on Oct. 26 temporarily paused a lower court order requiring the Interior Department's U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) to expand the auction, which was originally scheduled to be held in September.Oral arguments are scheduled for Nov.

An Iranian-flagged tanker anchored off Piraeus port is expected this week to retrieve part of its cargo which was confiscated by the United States and sail back to Iran, following a Greek top court ruling, government sources said on Wednesday. The case has strained relations between Athens and Tehran amid growing tensions between Iran and the United States.The removal of oil from the Lana, formerly Pegas, prompted Iranian forces to seize two Greek tankers in the Middle East Gulf which have not yet been released. "The (Greek) Supreme Court's ruling...

Fiji court ruled on Tuesday that the United States can seize a Russian-owned superyacht, 21 days after it arrived and was impounded by police, as the United States and its allies press Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.U.S. authorities assert that the luxury vessel, the Amadea, is ultimately owned by Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, who has been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union.The U.S. Justice Department's Taskforce KleptoCapture has focused on seizing yachts and other luxury assets to put the finances of Russian oligarchs under strain in a bid to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine.

Venezuelan state-run oil firm PDVSA has begun offering to ship its own oil, figuring in the costs in crude supply deals to help customers who have struggled to hire vessels to carry the country’s oil due to U.S. sanctions, according to company documents seen by Reuters.The United States has blacklisted vessel owners, shipping operators and threatened to sanction any tanker facilitating the country’s oil exports as it tightens restrictions on trade with the South American country.Washington has been trying to weaken socialist President Nicolas Maduro by choking the OPEC member’s oil exports, depriving the government of petrodollars — its main source of revenue.Most shipping firms are avoiding Venezuela because of the sanctions…

The United States Supreme Court held that, in the maritime tort context, a product manufacturer has a duty to warn when its product requires incorporation of a part that the manufacturer knows or has reason to know that the integrated product is likely to be dangerous for its intended uses and the manufacturer has no reason to believe that the product’s users will realize that danger. In the instant case, the manufacturers produced equipment for three Navy ships. The equipment required asbestos insulation or asbestos parts to function as intended…

A South African court ruled on Thursday that a seized ship carrying a Moroccan cargo of phosphate from the disputed Western Sahara should remain in port until the case goes to trial or security is posted, a lawyer for the Polisario independence movement said. The Polisario Front alleges the 50,000 tonne shipment en route to New Zealand was illegally taken from Western Sahara territory and went to court to have the cargo seized. The case is a test of Polisario's new legal tactic in its long-running conflict with Morocco over Western Sahara, a disputed territory where the two sides fought a war until a 1991 ceasefire and where U.N. talks have failed to reach an accord.

China's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday no matter how an arbitration court rules on a case about the South China Sea it will not affect China's sovereignty.   "No matter what kind of ruling is to be made, Chinese armed forces will firmly safeguard national sovereignty, security and maritime interests and rights, firmly uphold regional peace and stability, and deal with all kinds of threats and challenges," it said, in a bilingual Chinese and English statement. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)

The U.S. Supreme Court appeared closely divided on Monday as it weighed whether the administration of President Barack Obama exceeded its authority when crafting the nation's first greenhouse gas emissions regulations. Justice Anthony Kennedy could hold the swing vote on the nine-member high court, with conservative justices skeptical of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) approach and liberal justices generally supportive. It is possible the court could opt for a compromise in which the EPA loses the case but retains most of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the specific program at issue in the case. Such a move could potentially win the support of some liberal justices.

A recent ruling by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals clears the way for seaman to recover punitive damages in unseaworthiness claims, according to Jones Act attorney Matthew Shaffer. In the facts of the case, McBride v. Estis Well Serv., L.L.C., No. 12 – 30714, a man was killed and three others injured while working on a barge supporting a truck-mounted drilling rig in south Louisiana. The original lawsuit claimed negligence under the Jones Act and unseaworthiness under general maritime law. Shaffer, a Jones Act attorney with the Houston maritime law firm Schechter, McElwee, Shaffer & Harris, said the ruling is significant for injured workers.

Sea Search Armada's (SSA) lawsuit against the Government of Colombia in U.S. District Court, Washington D.C. claims it interfered with SSA's legitimate treasure salvage operations. The galleon San Jose carried coins and precious metals mined and smelted in Peru, and valued by experts to between $4 billion and $17 billion. The ship was sunk outside Cartagena, Colombia in 1708. In 1980, a marine salvage operation was mounted by a group now owned by SSA with the permission and participation of the Colombian government (GOC). After discovering the San Jose wreck site and notifying the GOC, the Colombians reneged on their agreement to share proceeds of any recovered treasure. In 1984, the Colombian Parliament enacted a law eliminating SSA’s claims to its property.

Swedish court rules for criminal conviction in SKF counterfeit court case. A Swedish court has sentenced one person to a one-year jail term and a five-year ban from trade, and awarded damages to SKF, after finding him guilty of violation of Swedish trademark law in relation to the SKF trademark. The court found that he intentionally purchased counterfeit SKF products. The products were thereafter sold with a high profit margin to unknowing customers. The criminal and civil court case was the result of a police raid in March 2010 of stores in Stockholm and Avesta (located in the central parts of Sweden) where the police found thousands of counterfeit SKF products. SKF cooperated with the police in the identification of the counterfeit bearings.

The American Waterways Operators (AWO) applauded the decision announced on Thursday by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that denied a motion for preliminary injunction filed by five Great Lakes states to close Chicago area locks as a way of preventing the migration of Asian carp into Lake Michigan. AWO and a coalition of industries and associations had intervened on the side of the defendants, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago, to keep the O’Brien and Chicago locks open. In his opinion, Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr. wrote that the plaintiffs – which include Michigan…

The English and Isle of Man courts granted injunctions against Navigator Gas Management (NGM) and Vela Energy Holdings Ltd in a dispute over the proposed long-term chartering of five gas tankers in the Navigator Gas Transport (NGT) fleet managed by NGM. The English injunction forbids NGM from taking any action which amounts to a denial of the existence of the Montanari charters and from suggesting to any third parties that the charters are ineffective. This follows claims made by NGM in the trade press and in brokers' reports that the Montanari charters, concluded on November 30 last year, are invalid. Group. Vela claims to have bought 51 per cent of the shares in Arctic…

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled the state of Washington overstepped its authority in attempting to regulate the operation of tank vessels in state waters. The Court's 9-0 decision in the closely watched case (Intertanko v. Locke, United States v. Locke) reversed the June 1998 decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding most of the state's "Best Achievable Protection" (BAP) standards for tank vessels. The Court found sufficient evidence to declare four of the Washington regulations unconstitutional and remanded the case so the validity of the others may be assessed by a lower court "in light of the considerable federal interest at stake and in conformity with the principles" set forth in the Supreme Court decision.

The following are remards by the Honorable Harold J. Creel, Jr., Federal Maritime Commisioner, as prepared for presentation at the International Transportation Management Conference in Houston. It is an honor and a pleasure to be addressing this distinguished conference. As Barry indicated in his opening remarks, this panel will be addressing the following hot topics in ocean transportation: globalization; deregulation; terrorism; new security requirements; antitrust immunity; and NVOCC confidential contracts. I would like to focus my remarks, from a government regulator's perspective, on the latter two topics. I will, of course, attempt to answer any questions you may have on anything that comes up.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that the law of salvage rather than the law of finds applies to the on-going work related to the wreck of the RMS TITANIC. The court also overturned the lower court’s actions regarding certain artifacts that had been retrieved and taken to France in 1987, ruling that the court had no in rem jurisdiction over those artifacts. The decision includes a lengthy comparison of the law of salvage and the law of finds. The case was remanded to the trial court with instructions to apply the principles of traditional salvage law to the wreck of the TITANIC in a manner that serves either the owner or, absent an owner, the public interest and at the same time provides an appropriate award to the salvor. RMS Titanic, Inc.

The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency issued a Press Notice stating that it is concerned over implications of a ruling by the Appeal Court, London that a personal water craft (PWC) is not a vessel for purposes of the Merchant Shipping Act 1995. The case arose as a prosecution of the operator of a PWC that collided with another PWC, severely injuring the other operator. An application had been made to appeal to the House of Lords. Source: HK Law

A Lesson in admiralty law was recently provided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit when it ruled that a maritime lien for breach of a charter party attaches when the vessel is placed at the charterer's disposal. vessel owner entered into a time charter and accordingly delivered the vessel. The vessel was then sold to a third party, subject to the time charter, and the new owner obtained a mortgage loan on the vessel. The bank providing the loan duly recorded its preferred ship mortgage. "Soon thereafter, the new owner breached the time charter and then defaulted on the mortgage. Both the bank and the charterer sought to recoup their losses by having the vessel sold, but the proceeds were not expected to cover both claims.

The Supreme Court of the Philippines ruled that Filipino seafarers, in many cases, are not "regular employees" as that term is defined in the laws of the Philippines. In the instant case, plaintiff seafarers were employed through manning agents with international carriers for in excess of 20 years. They applied for and were authorized to depart on annual leave. retirement. The employers dismissed them for failure to return to work. reinstated with back wages. and were not entitled to the rights thereunto pertaining. seafarers worldwide. Millares v.

The Supreme Court refused to reopen a case last week from a Virginia appeals court allowing adventure-tour operators to conduct deep-sea excursions to the wreck of Titanic. The high court let stand a decision handed down in March by the 4th U.S. Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. The ship's wreckage, about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, was not discovered until 1985. R.M.S. Titanic Inc. has since salvaged thousands of artifacts from the sunken ship, which it has exhibited throughout the world. It has not sold any of the artifacts to private collectors. U.S. District Judge Calvitt Clarke Jr.

The Supreme Court refused to reopen a case this week from a Virginia appeals court allowing adventure-tour operators to conduct deep-sea excursions to the wreck of Titanic. The high court let stand a decision handed down in March by the 4th U.S. Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank on its maiden voyage in 1912. The ship's wreckage, about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, was not discovered until 1985. R.M.S. Titanic Inc. has since salvaged thousands of artifacts from the sunken ship, which it has exhibited throughout the world. It has not sold any of the artifacts to private collectors. U.S. District Judge Calvitt Clarke Jr.

The Court of First Instance, has today ruled in the case concerning alleged breach of capacity restrictions at Kvaerner's German shipyard, Kvaerner Warnow Werft. The group has been informed that the Court has ruled in favor of Kvaerner. The Court has set aside the EU commission's decision that Kvaerner should repay DEM 117 million. Kvaerner paid and accounted for this amount in 2000. The Court's decision can be appealed within two months. Although Kvaerner has not yet seen the details of the Court's decision, Kvaerner's preliminary understanding is that the amount will be repaid. In addition to this case, the EU commission has not yet…