World Fuel Services has succeeded in a UK Admiralty Court application to protect its full range of compensation claims relating to bunkers supplied to two former Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) cruiseships.
The US bunker group was seeking a default judgment against the unnamed owners or bareboat charterers of the 63,800-gt Columbus (built 1989) and 55,900-gt Vasco da Gama (built 1993).
Admiralty registrar Richard Davison ruled that sections of the claims relating to costs, an administration fee and interest will remain as part of the case against these shipowners. That prevents them from being separated out into a claim against the vessel operator.
The Global Maritime Group (GMG) ships were sold in October after operator CMV collapsed during the pandemic.
The Admiralty Court said proceeds of the sales will be insufficient to satisfy the many claims lodged.
Davison added that each claimant has an interest in ensuring that only genuine claims are admitted.
World Fuel wants compensation for six stems of bunkers supplied in the first quarter of 2020.
Two cargoes were for Columbus in Panama and Tahiti at a cost of $1.4m and the rest, worth $2.28m, loaded on to the Vasco da Gama in Fremantle, Singapore and Cape Town.
Extras disputed
Another claimant in the case, US cruiseship giant Carnival Corp, has disputed the inclusion of World Fuel's claims for interest, an administrative fee and costs, totalling around another $750,000.
GMG had acquired the two ships from a Carnival subsidiary on a bareboat hire-purchase basis, TradeWinds understands. However, it is not clear what Carnival's specific claims are.
Carnival's position is that the additional World Fuel claims should be redirected to target operators of the vessels. Otherwise they would deplete the cash available to other complainants against the ships' owners.
Carnival has argued these extra sums were not focused on the supply of the oil.
But World Fuel said the items were part and parcel of the bargain and that it was not permissible to "unpick" or "slice and dice" the package of contractual terms upon which the bunkers were supplied.
Davison agreed, viewing interest and the administration fee as integral to the terms.
A contrary judgment would mean separate actions against the ship and operator, he ruled.
Contractual risk
"It would, in many cases, allow the counterparty simply to ignore or bypass the consequences of their contractual bargain and it would lead to a wasteful multiplicity of actions," Davison added.
The registrar admitted that the costs claims are "further removed" from the price of the bunkers than the interest and administration fee.
"But they are no less a part of the contractual bargain and I see no reason in principle to treat them differently," he added.
Portuguese cruise company Mystic Invest bought the Vasco da Gama (built 1993), while Greek shipowner Marios Iliopoulos, via his ferry company Seajets, bought the Columbus for $5.3m.
