US Court

Carnival Corporation to pay $20 million under probation deal

A federal judge in Miami ordered Carnival Corporation to pay $20 million in fines regarding its cruise ship pollution, under a plea deal after the world’s largest cruise operator violated the terms of its probation from a 2016 criminal conviction.

Before the hearing, victims of Carnival’s environmental crimes from the Bahamas and Alaska had filed an emergency motion to intervene in the proceeding. The judge presiding over the case allowed the victims’ legal counsel to speak at the hearing, but...

https://safety4sea.com/carnival-corporation-to-pay-20-million-under-probation-deal/

Jones Act: When a worker is defined as seaman

Steamship Mutual presents the case of Ross v W&T Offshore Inc 2018 WL 6492762 (E.D. La. Dec. 10, 2018), according to which the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana explained which are the criteria applied by the courts when assessing an injured party’s status in respect of claims brought under the Jones Act and general maritime law.

The issue of who is a Jones Act seaman so far as US nationals are concerned is governed by the decision reached in the United States Supreme Court...

https://safety4sea.com/jones-act-when-a-worker-is-defined-as-seaman/

Vessel owner and chief engineer face pollution charges in US court

A federal grand jury in Wilmington, Delaware, returned a six-count indictment on April 23, charging Chartworld Shipping Corporation, Nederland Shipping Corporation, and Chief Engineer Vasileios Mazarakis with failing to keep accurate pollution control records, falsifying records, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering, the Justice Department announced.

Specifically, the court’s charges are based on the falsification of records and other acts designed to cover up from the Coast Guard the...

https://safety4sea.com/vessel-owner-and-chief-engineer-face-pollution-charges-in-us-court/

Judge threatens to stop Carnival ships from docking in the US

A US Federal judge threatened that she might block Carnival Corporation from docking cruise ships at ports in the US as punishment for a possible probation violation. The cruise company has been on five years probation, from April 2017, as part of a $40m settlement for dumping oil into the ocean illegally from its Princess Cruises ships and subsequently lying about the scheme, according to court filings.

Specifically, according to the Miami Herald, Judge Patricia Seitz announced that she is to...

https://safety4sea.com/judge-threatens-to-stop-carnival-ships-from-docking-in-us/

The Aries rule does not extend to freight forwarders

As Standard Club informs, on 19 February 2019, the Commercial Court decided that the rule established in The Aries [1977] 1 WLR 185 (HL), as per which freight must always be paid and claims cannot be set off against it, did not apply to freight forwarders.

Nicholas Vineall QC, the deputy judge of the High Court, had to decide about an application made by the claimant, Globalink Transportation and Logistics Worldwide LLP (Globalink) for summary judgment against the defendant, DHL Project &...

https://safety4sea.com/the-aries-rule-does-not-extend-to-freight-forwarders/

Toyota Tsusho files complaint for off-spec bunkers against Nustar Energy

On March 27 Toyota Tsusho Petroleum (TTP) filed a complaint against Nustar Energy Services (NES) at a US Court. The file regarded alleged off-spec bunkers, and TTP seeks $421,784.94 from NES through two claims.

Namely, on April 19, 2018, NES supplied 840 metric tonnes (mt) of IFO 380 to the Singapore-flagged chemical tanker ‘M/V Beatrice’ at the Port of Houston.

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TTP and NES sent bunker samples to different fuel testing laboratories, which found that they were...

https://safety4sea.com/toyota-tsusho-files-complaint-for-off-spec-bunkers-against-nustar-energy/

US Bankruptcy Court approves Aegean Marine’s reorganization plan

Aegean Marine Petroleum, a marine fuel logistics company, published a statement according to which its re-organization plan has been approved by the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. This development leads the way for the Company to emerge from Chapter 11 restructuring as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mercuria Energy Group Limited, one of the world’s largest independent energy and commodity companies.

Mainly, Tyler Baron, Aegean Board Director commented that the Court’s...

https://safety4sea.com/us-bankruptcy-court-approves-aegean-marines-reorganization-plan/

US court decides against USS Cole sailors

The US Supreme Court on March 26 did not allow American sailors injured in the deadly 2000 al Qaeda bombing of the Navy destroyer USS Cole to collect the $314.7 million in damages from the government of Sudan for its alleged role in the attack.

Namely, the ruling overturned a lower court’s decision that had allowed the sailors to collect the damages from certain banks that held Sudanese assets, Reuters reports.

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The court agreed with Sudan that the lawsuit had...

https://safety4sea.com/us-court-decides-against-uss-cole-sailors/

US Court sentences man to four years for Seaman’s Manslaughter

US Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that a 30-year-old man from Cushing, Maine was sentenced in US District Court by Judge D. Brock Hornby to four years in prison and three years of supervised release for Seaman’s Manslaughter for causing the death of two crewmen who were then 26 and 15 years old. The man pleaded guilty on September 25, 2018.

According to court records, on November 1, 2014, after smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, the 30-year-old took his lobster boat out into a predicted...

https://safety4sea.com/us-court-sentences-man-to-four-years-for-seamans-manslaughter/

Crew members compensated for reporting owner’s illegal oil discharge

A Czech seafarer was awarded $225,000 for blowing the whistle on his employer, a German shipping company, over maintaining false official records to conceal deliberate pollution from its ship ‘Marguerita’.

The case was brought in the spotlight in November 2018, when the USCG informed that the German company MST Mineralien Schiffahrt Spedition und Transport GmbH (MST) pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and one count of obstruction of justice for using...

https://safety4sea.com/crew-members-compensated-for-reporting-owners-illegal-oil-discharge/

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