A United Arab Emirates company chasing Penfield Marine's UK arm after a crew change complicated cargo discharge has backed off its lawsuit.
Wellbred Trading moved to dismiss its complaint — filed in October in the US federal court for the Southern District of New York — without prejudice on 29 November.
Wellbred had used Penfield in October for at least $532,000.
It accused Penfield of diverting the 105,525-dwt tanker Jag Leela (built 2011) to India during a spring voyage from Fujairah to Singapore to change crews.
Wellbred said in its lawsuit it argued against the change and said that upon arrival in Singapore that cargo owner Chevron Singapore rejected the vessel
The company alleged it had to find a second ship to take the cargo into port via a ship-to-ship transfer.
Dismissing a complaint without prejudice means the plaintiff can bring its claims again.
It is unclear what Wellbred intends to do. The company's lawyer, Eva Maria-Mayer of Zeiler Floyd Zadkovich in New York, did not return a call seeking comment.
Penfield did not court file papers responding to Wellbred's lawsuit before the dismissal.
According to legal papers, two weeks before the India-flagged Jag Leela made its crew change, Singapore had put in place rules blocking crew changes for non-resident seafarers who had recently been to India.
Travel restrictions put in place at the outset of the Covid-19 pandemic prevent crew changes worldwide, trapping as many as 400,000 seafarers on board their ships at its height.
Some have blamed charterers for preventing crew changes once restrictions eased.
