THE "POSIDON" AND THE "PEGASUS"

[2017] SGHC 138, Singapore High Court, Belinda Ang Saw Ean J, 7 June 2017

Admiralty - Priorities - Mortgage - Necessaries - Claim for bunkers purportedly supplied for the last voyage permitting arrest and judicial sale - Mortgaging bank said to be involved in running shipowning company - Benefit from supply of necessaries accruing to mortgagee - Proceeds from judicial sale

This was the question of the order of priorities of claims against the proceeds from the judicial sale of the vessels Posidon and Pegasus. The interveners, suppliers of bunkers, argued that their claim for necessaries should rank in priority above the mortgagee bank's claim. The judge recognised that the demands of justice may occasionally require that equity be done, but held that the present case did not involve circumstances such as to justify a departure from the established position that the mortgagee's claim should take priority over the interveners' necessaries claim.