Tag: US Court

New York District Court decided on September 10 that MSC is not liable for the explosion and losses of the MSC Flaminia fire  on July 2012, which killed 3 crewmembers. Instead, Daltech and Stolt are responsible for the accident. Stolt has 45% responsibility, while Deltech is responsible by 55%.

Five crew members were sentenced in a US court this week for smuggling 1,205 pounds of cocaine across the ocean in low-profile vessels, including a captain who received a 17-year term. The defendants were sentenced to spend between 84-210 months in prison. 

Norwegian maritime industry group Wilhelmsen abandoned the acquisition of the US-based Drew Marine Technical Services, after the US District Court for the District of Columbia announced that it will grant the Federal Trade Commission’s motion for an injunction to block the transaction, on 21 July.

In the beginning of the year, New York sued five major oil companies. Namely, it demanded ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips to pay for the cost of protecting the city from the arising threat that the climate change poses. However, a New York federal judge dismissed the city's complain.

A Singaporean shipping company was ordered to pay $1 million and serve a two-year term of probation for not maintaining an accurate oil record book. The court accused the company for breaching the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and for false statements concerning the illegal dumping of oil contaminated bilge water at sea.

The US Department of Justice informed that two executives have been arrested in Miami for conspiring to fix prices for international freight forwarding services. One of the executives was ordered detained pending trial, while the other was released on conditions including a $500,000 personal surety bond. 

UK-based marine services contractor Inchcape and some of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay $20,000,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly overbilling the US Navy under contracts for ship husbanding services, the US Department of Justice announced. 

The former commanding officer of the warship USS John S. McCain, Cmdr. Alfredo J. Sanchez, pleaded guilty to a single charge of negligence for his role in the incident. He was sentenced to a punitive letter of reprimand and forfeiture of $6,000 in pay. Alfredo J. Sanchez admitted he did not set the proper watch team for the busy shipping lane the ship was entering, or take proper action when the bridge crew lost control of the ship.

On Monday, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a lawsuit by farmers and fishermen in western India against the World Bank's International Finance Corp, which provided $450 million in loans for a coal-fired plant near Mundra, in Gujarat, that they blame for damaging the environment and their livelihoods.

The sailors who were manning the combat nerve center of 'USS Fitzgerald' were not aware that they were on a collision course with another ship, until about one minute before the accident, according to data presented in the preliminary hearing for two junior officers accused of negligent homicide over the fatal collision in June.