Mediterranean Shipping Co is gearing up for a legal battle with Costamare over October's oil spill offshore California.
But first, the Geneva container shipping giant had to rush to stop a crew member from leaving the US.
An MSC-connected company filed an emergency petition in a US federal court on 27 November requesting permission to depose Richard Ledesma, the second officer aboard Costamare's 9,469-teu Beijing (built 2006).
Ledesma, Dordellas Finance Corp said, had abruptly departed the Beijing and was "heading to the airport to flee the jurisdiction" with no guarantee he could ever be found to provide testimony.
Dordellas is the registered owner of the 14,028-teu MSC Danit (built 2009).
It, along with the Beijing, are suspected by the US Coast Guard of damaging an oil pipeline near the Southern California shoreline in January, leading to its rupture in October leaking an estimated 25,000 gallons of oil.
Dordellas argues the MSC Danit was lifting its anchor to move to a safer location in January amid high winds but was forced to stop as the Beijing was dragging its anchor and drifting dangerously close.
The US Coast Guard interviewed Ledesma on 18 November as part of its investigation into the spill, but the officer exercised his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination, including declining to disclose his nationality or his date of birth.
Dordellas' attorney, Joseph Walsh of Collier Walsh Nakazawa, said he threatened to arrest the Beijing in an attempt to secure his own interviews. Dordellas said there are already 11 lawsuits stemming from the spill and claims potentially in the hundreds of millions of dollars it could be partially responsible for.
To avoid arrest, the vessel's ownership interests offered to order Ledesma to speak with Walsh, court papers said. Both sides agreed Ledesma's decision to actually answer any of the questions was his own.
Walsh said that discussion happened on 26 November. The next day he was notified Ledesma was leaving the country.
He added that the Coast Guard believed it would have ample time to interview four of the Beijing's crew members who were working on the ship in January, given the extreme congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
MSC Danit
Capacity: 13,200-teu
Built: 2009
Registered Owner: Dordellas Finance Corp
Commercial Manager: MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co
Beijing
Capacity: 9,469-teu
Built: 2006
Registered Owner: Capetanissa Maritime
Commercial Manager: Costamare Shipping
But somehow, Walsh said, the ship was able to discharge its cargo on 29 November, seeking to bypass the massive queue at the key West Coast ports.
According to automatic identification system data, the Beijing is in international waters in the Pacific Ocean, due in Yantian, China on 13 December.
The petition named Ledesma, the Beijing, its privately-held commercial manager Costamare Shipping and its registered owner Capetanissa Maritime Corp as respondents. Capetanissa is listed as a subsidiary of New York-listed Costamare in regulatory filings.
Costamare Shipping, which is owned by Costamare chief executive and chairman Konstantinos Konstantakopoulos, did not return a request for comment, nor did Costamare.
Dordellas shares an address with MSC and MSC is the MSC Danit's manager.
Attorneys for Ledesma and Costamare did not return requests for comment.
