It has taken nearly 12 years and more than 1,800 court filings to bring a battle over a deadly explosion on an MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company container ship to an end.
The parties in the long legal brouhaha have informed a US judge they have settled the case over the explosion, with Oslo-listed chemical shipping giant Stolt-Nielsen paying out $290m after being found partially at fault for the incident.
Three crew members died when the 6,732-teu MSC Flaminia (built 2001) suffered an explosion and fire in July 2012, touching off legal and arbitration fights in New York, London, New Orleans and beyond.
The blast was blamed on a cargo of divinylbenzene manufactured by Louisiana’s Deltech and moved in three Stolt tank containers. The chemical can explode when exposed to heat.
In 2018, a judge found Deltech 55% liable, with Stolt on the hook for 45%.
Lawyers for the warring parties have now filed a notice with a US court voluntarily dismissing the case.
It was the 1,802nd item on a docket in the main case, now before US District Judge George Daniels in a federal court in New York, that has raged since cargo interests began suing in December 2012.
The terms of the settlement are undisclosed, but Stolt said in its first-quarter earnings report that it made payment of about $290m related to the incident.
The Oslo-listed company, whose Stolt Tank Containers unit was involved in the case, also said it received $133m in insurance proceeds related to the incident.
As TradeWinds has reported, Stolt logged a $155m provision in its 2023 financials for the expected settlement.
“The settlement amount did not require a further legal claims provision,” the company said in its first-quarter results.
The MSC Flaminia case in New York had kept lawyers busy for more than a decade.
The ship’s owner, an affiliate of Germany’s Conti, and manager NSB Group were represented by a team of lawyers led by Eugene O’Connor at Montgomery McCracken.
MSC was represented by Edward Flood and Jon Werner at Lyons & Flood.
Deltech, whose ultimate payout has not been revealed, was represented by Joseph Perrone and Timothy McDonnell at Giuliano McDonnell & Perrone, as well as Lawrence DeMeo at Hunton Andrews Kurth.
Stolt was represented by John Nicoletti of Nicoletti Hornig & Sweeney.
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