When Lighthouse Navigation redelivered a ship to owner d'Amico Dry Cargo at the end of a charter, the vessel was not completely empty.
Rather, the open-hatch carrier arrived at Houston, Texas, with shipping containers full of pest-infested dunnage, the material used to protect cargo in the vessel's hold.
The unwanted boxes are now the subject of a legal spat between the d'Amico bulker subsidiary and Lighthouse, the commercial management arm of Oslo-listed shipowner Belships.
Lawyers for d'Amico have filed a lawsuit in a US federal court in Houston, asking a judge to seize bunker fuel on another vessel in a bid to obtain $1.58m in security.
That comes as the Italian shipowner is preparing to launch arbitration in London on allegations that Lighthouse violated the charter contract, according to court documents.
Lighthouse has yet to file a response in the case, and the Bangkok-headquartered company's executives did not immediately respond to TradeWinds' request for comment.
The case centres on Lighthouse's single-trip time charter of the 39,200-dwt bulker Cielo di Monaco (built 2014), which was signed in September and involved delivery of bulk steel at Houston.
But at the US port, an inspection by US Customs and Border Protection found an infestation of a pest described as a "possible quarantine significant insect" in the dunnage, according to an inspection report.
Lawyers for d'Amico told the court that Lighthouse attempted to dispose of the dunnage, but US officials would not allow it to be offloaded.
Instead, when the charter was over, the Thai company delivered the Cielo di Monaco with "multiple containers" full of the infested dunnage.
The problem for d'Amico was that its next charter involved loading a cargo in the Mississippi River, where it would still not be possible to offload the problem boxes.
"In order to persuade next charterer to accept the vessel with the containers of infested dunnage stowed on board, occupying cargo space, and to allow a deviation to offload the containers on route, d’Amico agreed to lump-sum compensation of $75,000 payable to the new charterers," the lawyers said.
But the Italian company has alleged that the problem was much more costly, thanks to wait time, off-hire for the deviations, port charges and disposal costs in Colombia, among other expenses adding up to nearly $383,000. Add in legal costs and interest, and the alleged bill rises to more than $1.05m, with the effort to obtain security seeking 150% of that amount.
d'Amico, represented in the case by attorneys at Rayzor, Vickery & Williams and Tisdale & Nast Law Offices, has asked to seize bunkers on Seven Seas Carriers' 51,700-dwt Bonas (built 2010), which is believed to be on charter to Lighthouse.
The vessel was due to arrive in Houston on Sunday.
Court records indicate that d'Amico has hired Florida-based National Maritime Services to take custody of the seized bunkers, which will have to be stored if the company succeeds in securing a maritime attachment.
A judge has yet to rule on d'Amico's Friday motion.
Tracking data from VesselsValue shows that the Bonas is fully laden on a voyage from the Black Sea.
This story has been amended to reflect that the Cielo di Monaco was chartered to Lightouse Navigation.
