Berge Bulk has asked a judge in Puerto Rico to throw out a lawsuit filed by a grain company over a casualty that saw a bulker strike a tower at a terminal on the US-controlled island.
The summary judgment request comes 10 months after Puerto Rico’s Pan American Grain Manufacturing filed a lawsuit in the US federal court in San Juan in November over the incident involving the 37,700-dwt Berge Scafell Pike (built 2020).
In an updated complaint filed in January, the grain company fired off negligence claims against a variety of companies associated with the vessel. That included Berge Bulk, which had the ship on charter from Sakae Shipping, a shipowning affiliate of Japan’s Tachibana Kaiun.
But lawyers for Berge Bulk, a Singapore bulker operator, told district judge Silvia Carreno-Coll that the charterer cannot be held liable for unseaworthiness or crew negligence.
That can only happen if the company agreed to bear that liability in the contract or if it was found to be independently responsible for the negligence that caused the damage, the lawyers at Puerto Rico firm McConnell Valdes argued.
Instead, they argued that Sakae was responsible for navigation, seaworthiness and crew.
“Thus, Berge was neither responsible for nor had any control over the ‘shifting manoeuvre’ that supposedly resulted from the allision and is not liable for the damages claimed by plaintiffs,” McConnell Valdes’ Henry Freese-Souffront and Javier Aquino-Vidal said.
“As a result, plaintiffs have no valid cause of action against Berge and the complaint should be dismissed with prejudice.”
August 2022 charter
Pan American Grain chartered the Berge Scafell Pike in August 2022 from Norwegian operator Western Bulk, which had it on subcharter from Berge Bulk.
Western Bulk and Sakae had insurance from NorthStandard. All three were named as defendants in the case, although Pan American Grain agreed to withdraw its claims against Western Bulk.
According to the latest complaint by Pan American Grain at the US District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, the ship was carrying out a shifting manoeuvre to move within the terminal in November of that year when it damaged the tower. The tower’s marine leg, accompanying structures and other parts were damaged.
The lawsuit did not specify the exact financial damage, but Pan American Grain’s attorneys at law firm Castaner & Cia said repairing the tower required removing it from service for months, which would result in “millions of dollars” in business interruption.
They said the grain company would have to either build another tower or a temporary unloading facility, resulting in even more costs.
Pan American Grain said it imports 50% of the bulk grains brought into Puerto Rico.
“Any disruption in its unloading operations will negatively impact the food supply chain on the island, specifically rice, which is the basic staple in the Puerto Rican diet; wheat, which will impact close to 50% of flour produced locally; and animal feeds affecting the production of milk (dairy industry), poultry, eggs, hogs, cattle, etc,” lawyer Alberto Castaner wrote.
The case has resulted in a series of crossclaims by the various parties in the charter chain.
Berge Bulk has filed claims against Sakae and NorthStandard, which have filed claims against Western Bulk.
Sakae has denied the claims against it, claiming that problem was the placement and operation of the marine tower and arguing that the terminal continued operating after the incident.
NorthStandard mirrored those allegations in its denial.
Both the shipowner and insurer are represented by JGL Attorneys at Law.
The Berge Scafell Pike flies the Panamanian flag and is classed by Japan’s ClassNK.
