Sophocles Zoullas’ Zenith Shipping Group is seeking to claw back damages after one of its vessels was allegedly wrongfully arrested in India by a bunker supplier that has been chasing fuel bills from a former charterer of the ship.
The legal battle centres on the 53,800-dwt Denali (built 2009), one of two sisterships the New York shipowner purchased in 2015 from a joint venture between trader Glencore and Goldenport Holdings.
Fuel claim
Peru's Van Oil Petroleum Ltd arrested the ship in the state of Gujarat last year over a fuel claim against a former charterer, despite a change of ownership and the passage of more than six years between the fuelling and the vessel's arrest.
Zenith managed to free the ship after the court found the claim was time-barred.
But Zenith claims the arrest was made in bad faith in order to "extort" a settlement from Zenith by preventing it from performing on a time charter.
The Van Oil claim against the ship for $1.3m, which includes interest, dates back to early 2012, when charterer Allied Maritime allegedly failed to pay a $975,600 fuel bill it incurred at Callao in Peru while trading under previous name Marie Paule.
The arrest in India last year is not the first time the ship has been targeted over that claim.
In December 2012, the previous owner won the release of the vessel in Bangladesh, after the High Court ruled that Van Oil had no legitimate claim against the vessel.
The arrest at Navlakhi in India in April 2018 came while the ship was discharging cargo for Oldendorff Carriers under a four to six-month time charter.
[Van Oil] was aware the vessel was on charter to Oldendorff and attempted to extort a settlement from [Zenith] knowing that Oldendorff could cancel the charter as a result of the arrest
Lawyers for Zenith subsidiary Denali
The judge threw out the arrest lawsuit, but Van Oil appealed, which stopped the bulker from departing with its cargo.
The Denali sailed only after it had spent 30 days off hire, giving Oldendorff the right to cancel the charter, which it exercised.
Lawyers for the Zenith subsidiary Denali Shipping LP, which owns the vessel, have told the a federal court in Miami that Van Oil arrested and appealed knowing the grounds were bogus.
'Bogus' appeal
They claimed the Bangladesh court had already found there was no lien against the ship and that Van Oil knew the claim was time-barred before it was arrested in India.
"[Van Oil] was aware the vessel was on charter to Oldendorff and attempted to extort a settlement from [Zenith] knowing that Oldendorff could cancel the charter as a result of the arrest," Denali's lawyers told the court.
They added the bunkerer appealed the Indian court's first unfavourable decision "without any legitimate basis to appeal and purely based on bad faith in order to cause harm to [Zenith] in order to force a settlement".
Zenith reckons its losses from the cancellation of that charter total more than $900,000, some of which it hopes to recover from bunkering customer deposits in a Florida bank.
Zoullas did not respond to a request for comment. Van Oil could not be immediately reached.
