The registered owners of five Interunity Management Corp-connected sisterships are suing Columbia Shipmanagement for $11.5m, accusing the Cypriot company of lying about their financial status and failing to maintain the boxships.
The companies — FS Algarobbo, FS Andes, FS Andino, FS Arica and FS Austral— filed lawsuits in the High Court in London on 29 July and in the US District Court for Delaware on Tuesday of last week
They said that in late April and continuing into May Columbia told lenders, creditors and Liberian-flag authorities that the companies had become insolvent and that the management agreements for the containerships were being terminated.
"Each of the allegations was false," the registered owners wrote in their Delaware complaint.
"Plaintiffs did not consider themselves insolvent. Plaintiffs had no intention to file for insolvency, immediately or otherwise. Plaintiffs had not requested [Columbia] write to plaintiff's creditors with that information."
Because of the dispute, it is alleged that Columbia would not let the feeder containerships sail, causing the owners to lose charter revenue.
The 2,872-teu Algarrobo (built 2009) was prevented from leaving Costa Rica to sail to Colombia to take on cargo. The 2,872-teu Arica (built 2007) was held in US waters, arrested by several parties and auctioned off on 22 July.
The 2,872-teu Andino (built 2008) was not allowed to sail from Rotterdam to Malta, while the 2,872-teu Andes (built 2007) was held in Greece. The 2,782-teu Austral (built 2008) was kept in Spanish territorial waters.
Lawyers for the Interunity-linked shipowners alleged Columbia also left the ships in poor condition, with the Austral, Andino and Andes all suffering significant damage, with dozens of flag, classification and Safety of Life at Sea violations across the trio.
"[Columbia] strenuously denies and will be vigorously defending the allegations made but does not believe it appropriate to comment on matters which will be subject of forthcoming litigation," Columbia Shipmanagement said in a statement.
The Delaware lawsuit seeks to garnish Columbia property held with several companies as security for its UK lawsuit.
Ownership change
According to documents filed in the High Court in London, the registered owners on 15 May were acquired by Fancy Holdings — roughly two weeks after Columbia began sending emails claiming the registered owners were insolvent.
The emails continued through 30 June.
In July, TradeWinds reported Germany’s NSC Holding and Greece’s Interunity had taken control of the fleet to save the Arica, which had already been ordered to be auctioned.
Prior to the May ownership change, the ships were thought to be owned by London-based Norwegian Christopher Paus.
The FS prefix on each of the registered owners was said to stand for Paus' "Freedom Shipping".
Both the Delaware lawsuit and Interunity have described Paus' Pausco as the ships' former agent.
In an interview, Interunity told TradeWinds the ships were now part of a "restructuring portfolio".
The Arica was bought at auction by Robin 4 Shipping, a Marshall Islands-registered company, for $6.5m.
NSC Shipping, an affiliate of NSC Holding, is listed as the commercial manager for the remaining four ships, having taken them over in May or June.
