Yet another hearing of the case on the arrest of Greek tanker Delta Pioneer which allided with a pier at Primorsk port because of spontaneous release of the towing line in November 2016 was held at the Arbitration Court of the Northwestern District on 25 October 2017. According to IAA PortNews correspondent, the Greek ship owner appealed against the Court of Appeal’s rejection to consider the status of the ruling lifting the tanker arrest. The judges suspended consideration of the case till 1 November 2017.
The tanker was arrested by the claim of Transneft-Port Primorsk LLC (Transneft subsidiary) and Commercial Sea Port of Primorsk LLC in respect of the Aframax tanker’s allusion with a pier at Primorsk port in November 2016.
“On 16 May 2017, Greek ship owner provided the court with letters of guarantee from West of England P&I Club in the amount of the tanker value, and on May 22 the arrest was lifted, - explained Konstantin Krasnokutsky, representative of the ship owner in the court. – The ruling on accepting the guarantee of West of England P&I Club and lifting the arrest appeared in Commercial Case File on the night of May 23 to May 24.”
According to him, in the morning of May 24 ship owner’s representative obtained several certified copies from the court office and left for Primorsk in order to release the tanker.
“Yet, in the second half of the same day the ruling on lifting the arrest disappeared from CCF and an opposite ruling (on rejection to lift the arrest) appeared on the night of May 26 to May 27”, explained the ship owner’s representative.
Representatives of the ship owner addressed the management of the Arbitration Court of Saint-Petersburg and the Leningrad Region over the ruling disappearance with a request for explanations and to judicial qualification boards (Qualification Board of Saint-Petersburg Judges and Higher Qualification Board of Judges) to ensure that those responsible are brought to disciplinary action and to the court of appeal.
The Court of Appeal rejected consideration of the ship owner’s complaint over the ruling “disappearance”. According to the ruling of the Court of Appeal (a copy is available at IAA PortNews), “the fact of issuing the ruling dated 22.05.2017 is, as explained by the management of the Arbitration Court, a technical error sufficient for bringing those responsible to disciplinary action but not necessitating an assessment of the non-existing ruling at the court of appeal”.
It should be noted that after the ship owner’s representative provided the court with the arguments and a certified copy of the ruling lifting the arrest the judges announced suspension of the case consideration till 1 November 2017.
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