The Supreme Court, in its jurisdiction as a Maritime Court, unanimously quashed recently an arrest warrant for the tanker Agios Nikolaos following an application for review of a previous decision of the same body, in a case concerning the ownership of the ship, which had originally been heard in Greece.
The parties were the company that originally owned the ship, based in Hong Kong, and Rexel Corp, the company that bought the ship at a public auction in Greece last September and registered as the owner of the ship in the registry of the Martial Islands, with the former challenging the procedures followed and claiming ownership of the ship.
The judgment concerns Rexel Corp.'s application for review of the judgment of the High Court of Justice of the day. 9/11/2021, which dismissed its petition, filed late last October, for release/cancellation of a Vessel Seizure Order, filed in the action brought by the first company.
The case had begun in Greece when the plaintiffs filed an application for injunctive relief against Rexel Corp. before the Piraeus Court of First Instance and obtained a temporary prohibition of both the vessel's departure from the port of Elefsina and a change in its factual and legal status. This was done without a subpoena to Rexel Corp. and was effective until September 21, 2021. After that date, there followed the filing by the Claimants of a claim against Rexel Corp. in the Piraeus Court of First Instance, seeking recognition of their full ownership of the vessel, and an order for its restitution to the Claimants, inter alia. The Court, however, after hearing the Rexel Corp. side, did not accept the continuation of the temporary prohibition to sail the vessel. It only accepted the continuation of the temporary prohibition of the change in the actual and legal status of the vessel until 15/10/21.
Prior to the expiration of this prohibition, the Plaintiffs also filed an action before the Supreme Court of the Republic of Cyprus in its jurisdiction as the Maritime Court, seeking the grant of substantive and final relief, namely the issuance of a Recognition Statement that they are the sole legal owners of the disputed vessel. They also filed a unilateral application seeking the issuance of an Order directing the immediate arrest of the ship and the retention of the ship within the jurisdiction of Cyprus, in aid of the Greek Action.
The Supreme Court said in its judgment that the original judgment held that the Maritime Court Action was ancillary to the action brought by the Claimants in Greece against Rexel and that under Article 35 of the European Regulation on International Jurisdiction, Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters it was possible to issue a warrant for the arrest of the ship in aid of the Greek action.
He said that the issue raised was whether the issuance of the arrest warrant constituted assistance to the Greek Court for the purposes of Article 35 of the Rules. "As it turned out, in the present case the Greek Court, which had the power to issue a similar order to that issued by the Cyprus Court, initially issued it and then considered it appropriate to quash it," the judgment said. In these circumstances, it adds, it is not clear how the issuance of the Arrest Order assists the Greek proceedings in the Greek action and the Greek Court.
It is obvious that, as formulated, the factual Claim (in rem) filed before the Cyprus Maritime Court could not be a basis of support for the issuance of an Arrest Warrant for the ship in aid and in the alternative of foreign legal proceedings, namely the Greek Claim, it added.
Source: CNA
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