ANTONIO GRAMSCI SHIPPING CORPORATION V STEPANOVS

[2011] EWHC 333 (Comm), Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court, Mr Justice Burton, 25 February 2011

Shipping - Company law - Piercing the corporate veil - Whether defendant controlled the corporate defendants - Whether necessary to pierce the veil - Liability under charterparties - Waiver of the right to pursue in contract - Whether defendant a party to jurisdiction clause

A fraud had allegedly been perpetrated on the claimants, a number of one-ship companies, by concluding charterparties between them and the "corporate defendants" (five companies incorporated in BVI and Gibraltar for this purpose) for a lower charter rate than the commercial rate, so that the corporate defendants could conclude charterparties at the commercial rate, pocketing the difference. This was the decision on the specific issue whether the court had jurisdiction over the claim against Mr S, a defendant said to control the corporate defendants, on the basis of the charterparties.