US lawyers are targeting the social-media apps on Chinese seafarers’ mobile phones after a $27m casualty at the port of Houston.
Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG), the Port of Houston Authority and Houston terminal operator TPC Group are suing Beijing-based Beikun Shipping, its 34,400-dwt handysize bulker Yochow (built 2015) and operator China Navigation for severe damage to docks and a US-flag articulated tug barge.
The claims come to more than the value of the arrested ship, assessed by VesselsValue at $18.6m. The three plaintiffs have accepted security in the form of the owner's nearly $19.3m bond and agreed this week to release the vessel.
But the litigation is only beginning.
TPC Group, the biggest claimant, fears evidence is going to sail away with the ship, not just on its vessel data recorder and electronic chart display and information system, but also on the mobile phones of the Chinese captain, helmsman, duty officer and lookout.
"The parties learned during these depositions that crew members use an application called 'WeChat' to communicate with shipmanagement and loved ones back home," wrote Catherine Barrett Rice of the Jones Walker law firm, referring to China's widely used social-media platform.
"Downloading all text messages, WeChat messages, photographs and other data from these phones will be essential to TPC Group in contesting a limitation [of liability] action, as members of the crew may have communicated with management before, during, and after the marine casualty."
OSG claims its 30,400-dwt tank barge OSG 243 (built 1982) and associated 5,600-hp pusher tug OSG Independence (built 1980) were moored at TPC's Texas Petrochemical Terminal dock A on the Houston Ship Channel on 13 June when the Yochow struck it on an inbound voyage carrying a steel products cargo. The owner blames the Yochow's crew and says repairs to its barge plus lost revenue and other costs will come to $3.3m.
Shoreside parties have also piled onto OSG's arrest lawsuit. Terminal operator TPC says the repairs plus business losses from the closure of its two docks will exceed $20m.
However, the Port of Houston Authority is not sparing OSG. Although its lawyers agree with the other plaintiffs that the damage was caused by the Yochow ramming the moored OSG barge into the dock that it rents to TPC, Houston is targeting both owners with its own claim for $4m or more, alleging unspecified negligence on OSG's part.
Despite the scale of the claims, documents in the case do not mention any pollution risk.
Beijing-based Beikun operates a growing fleet of vessels from handysize to panamax in international and domestic trades. A Beikun official tells TradeWinds that Beikun are only managers and know little about the Texas incident. Reference sources list Beikun as owner of the Yochow and court records indicate the company posted the $19.25m bond.
The website of Swire Group-controlled China Navigation Co lists the Yochow as part of its long-term chartered fleet. An official of the Singapore-based handysize owner did not immediately comment.
