Tag: court

The US Department of Justice announced that the DSD Shipping and three employees have been convicted of violating the APPS

120 Somali pirates arrested by Mumbai Police in 2011 have told their Embassy officials that they want to plead guilty in the case

 The US Department of Justice has announced that Greek ship management company Chandris (Hellas) Inc. has  pleaded guilty and was sentenced for deliberately concealing pollution discharges from the ship directly into the sea and for falsifying  record book of  M/V Sestrea - an 81,502 ton cargo ship that made calls in multiple ports in Texas. The company has agreed to pay $1 million monetary penalty.Chandris pleaded guilty to a violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) for failing to properly maintain an oil record book as required by federal and international law, as well as a violation of making a false statement for making a false entry in the ship’s oil record book.U.S. District Judge Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ordered the company to pay an $800,000 criminal fine along with a $200,000 community service payment to the congressionally-established National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. The money will be designated for use in the Flower Garden and Stetson Banks National Marine Sanctuary, headquartered in Galveston, to support the protection and preservation of natural and cultural resources located in and adjacent to the sanctuary.Chandris was also sentenced to three years probation. As a condition of the probation, all ships Chandris manages and are involved in transporting ...

US Department of Justice announced that APL Limited has agreed to pay the government $9.8 million to resolve allegations that it violated the False Claims Act in connection with a contract to provide GPS tracking of shipping containers in Afghanistan

 The Court of Appeal’s judgment in relation to the dispute between the owners of the RES COGITANS and OW/ING was handed down on 22nd October, 2015. In this case the Court effectively held that although the contract as between the owner and OW had all the hallmarks of a sale contract, the Sale of Goods Act did not apply.The Court considered that: “It is a contract under which goods are to be delivered to the owners as bailees with a licence to consume them for the propulsion of the vessel, coupled with an agreement to sell any quantity remaining at the date of payment, in return for a money consideration which in commercial terms can properly be described as the price.”Responding to the judgment, Kieron Moore, Senior Director of Claims for the UK Defence Club, says:“Under this reasoning, as the bunkers had been consumed, the Member was obliged to pay for the bunkers as licensee, notwithstanding a retention of title clause in the underlying contract.“As a consequence, an owner may be obliged to pay twice for the same bunkers.“What the judgment fails to positively address is what occurs if some of the bunkers remain unconsumed: does the Sale of Goods Act apply ...

 The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) acted arbitrarily and capriciously in issuing the ballast water provisions included in the 2013 Vessel General Permit (“VGP”), and remanded the issue to the EPA to redraft the ballast water sections of the VGP. The differences between the VGP ballast water provisions, International Maritime Organization (“IMO”) Ballast Water Management Convention, and U.S. Coast Guard’s ballast water regulations have posed a number of compliance challenges thus far, which may be further exacerbated by possible new VGP requirements. While substantive changes to the VGP ballast provisions, if any, are likely years away, ship owners and operators should be aware, closely monitor, and be prepared to comment on a new draft VGP in the future.New DevelopmentOn October 5, 2015, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously ruled that the EPA acted arbitrarily and capriciously in drafting the ballast water discharge provisions of its 2013 VGP.  Most notably, the court stated that the EPA failed to adequately explain why stricter technology-based effluent standards should not be applied, failed to give fair and thorough consideration to onshore treatment options, and failed to adequately explain why pre-2009 Lakers were exempted.  ...

 The US Department of Justice announced a settlement to resolve civil claims against BP arising from the April 20, 2010 Macondo well blowout and the massive oil spill that followed in the Gulf of Mexico.This global settlement resolves the governments’ civil claims under the Clean Water Act and natural resources damage claims under the Oil Pollution Act, as well as economic damage claims of the five Gulf states and local governments.  Taken together this global resolution of civil claims is worth $20.8 billion, and is the largest settlement with a single entity in the department’s history.Also, the Deepwater Horizon Trustees Council, made up of representatives of the five Gulf states and four federal agencies, has published a draft damage assessment and restoration plan and a draft environmental impact statement.  The plan includes a comprehensive assessment of natural resource injuries resulting from the oil spill and provides a detailed framework for how the trustees will use the natural resource damage recoveries from BP to restore the Gulf environment.“Building on prior actions against BP and its subsidiaries by the Department of Justice, this historic resolution is a strong and fitting response to the worst environmental disaster in American history,” said Attorney General Loretta Lynch. “BP is receiving ...

 CHALOS & Co law firm informs that a federal appeals court in New York ordered US EPA to rewrite its rules regarding the discharge of ballast water from ships, following reaction by environmental groups that said the rules threatened the nation’s waterways.Four environmental agencies petitioned the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for review of the Vessel General Permit (“VGP”) issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) in 2013 under Section 509(b)(1) of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), which regulates the discharge of ballast water from ships (and is the primary cause of the spread of invasive species to different bodies of water). On October 5, 2015, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Natural Resources Defense Counsel, et al. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, holding that the EPA acted arbitrarily and capriciously in issuing the permit and remanded back to the EPA for further proceedings.   The sixty-five (65) page decision goes into great detail regarding the historic context for why such a VGP is necessary, the purposes of the CWA, and the technical components of the statute for preventing pollutants and measuring compliance with the act, specifically water quality standards.  The EPA issued the 2013 VGP allowing vessels to discharge ballast water ...

Two global companies have been sentenced after a worker was killed and another seriously injured during construction of an offshore wind farm.

Stena Drilling has pleaded guilty to charges related to a fatal accident on board its Stena Clyde semi-submersible drilling rig off Australia in 2012 in which two people were killed.