Wave Maker Shipping Co Ltd and Ors v Hawkspere Shipping Co Ltd (The "Nobility") - US Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)(Niemeyer, Williams and Michael Ct JJ) - 23 January 2003 (Unpublished)

Attachment of bunkers by creditor of charterer - Shipowner disputing attachment on ground that bunkers not owned by charterer - Whether creditor discharged burden of proving that bunkers were owned by charterer at time of attachment

Clipper Bulk Shipping Ltd ("Clipper") sub-chartered its vessel Nobility to Hawkspere Shipping Co Ltd ("Hawkspere") for one voyage from the Baltic Sea to the Eastern United States. The charterparty provided that Hawkspere on delivery, and Clipper on redelivery, would take over and pay for all bunkers on board the vessel. On 24 October 2000, while the vessel was in St Petersburg, Russia, Hawkspere purchased an additional 400 tons of bunker fuel from Baltic Bunkering Co ("Baltic") under a contract ("FUELCON") which provided that title to the fuel should pass to the buyers upon payment, and that until such payment had been made, the sellers should have a right of lien over the fuel delivered. Hawkspere never paid Baltic for the bunkers. When the vessel docked in Baltimore Harbor in November 2000 nearly all the original bunkers on board had been consumed. Of the $57,163.90 worth of fuel then aboard the vessel, all but $7,938.00 was from the Russian bunkers.