Nearly two years on from this century’s most famous shipping accident, and court cases continue to swirl around the Ever Given’s grounding and blocking of the Suez Canal.
’s A court in London is hearing a case at the moment brought about by SMIT, a salvage firm belonging to Royal Boskalis Westminster. The salvage company is arguing that the Ever Given’s Japanese owners, Shoei Kisen Kaisha, still owe many millions for its part in freeing the giant boxship that ran aground across the Egyptian waterway in March 2021.
Lawyers for the Japanese owners maintain that it was the Suez Canal Authority who were behind most of the work to free the 400 m long vessel.
The Ever Given’s owner was forced to pay the Suez Canal Authority many millions of dollars to free the ship months after it was refloated.
Many court cases brought by cargo interests have been initiated in the near two years since the accident while last month Splash reported Danish carrier Maersk had filed a lawsuit, thought to be worth around $40m, against the owner and operator of the Ever Given, seeking compensation for delays caused by the incident.
What about the AP Moller cyber attack where ports around the world were closed, who took court action to reclaim the additional costs !
If I hired or leased a car, had an accident which affected other road users and the car had to be recovered, all of this would be down to me as the user/driver.
So why is it not Evergreen, as the vessel operator, that is the focus of these claims?
Simple layman’s explanation please!
John mate,iam sure they no trick in the trade.Yes iam retired salvage /tow engineer 😉
I have looked into this accident. The Egyption Pilots were responsible for the safe passage through the canal. They went to slow in the gusty wind conditions.