The Kommunar

In Centro Latino Americano de Commercio Exterior SA v. Owners of the Ship Kommunar (The Kommunar (No. 2)) 1 Colman, J., in the Admiralty Court, set aside the writ in that case and released the Kommunar from arrest. Later, in The Kommunar (No. 3),2 he was asked to find that the arrest of the Kommunar was wrongful for the whole or part of its duration, and to make a declaration accordingly, and to refer the matter of damages to the Registrar. He concluded, however, that the defendants had failed to establish either mala fides or crassa negligentia and that there was, therefore, no basis upon which they were entitled to recover damages for wrongful arrest.3 On the evidence, his Lordship said, mala fides in seeking to arrest the vessel could not seriously be suggested while the assumption that the vessel could properly be arrested in England was not so obviously groundless as to amount to crassa negligentia.