HARMONY INNOVATION SHIPPING PTE LTD V CARAVEL SHIPPING INC

[2019] EWHC 1037 (Comm), Commercial Court, Queen's Bench Division, Sir Ross Cranston (sitting as a High Court Judge), 21 February 2019

Contracts - Letters of indemnity - Cargo misdelivery - Injunctions to take steps to secure release of arrested vessel - Actual delivery - Believed delivery

The applicant Harmony was the disponent owner and Caravel was the charterer under a charterparty. This was Caravel's application to discharge an ex parte interim injunction obtained by Harmony on 11 February 2019. There was also a second application for a similar order between other parties in the chartering chain. The ex parte injunction required Caravel to provide security and take necessary steps to secure the release of the vessel Universal Bremen from arrest in Singapore. The background was that nine months after discharge of a cargo of coal against letters of indemnity issued throughout the chartering chain, a bank had demanded delivery of the coal, claiming to be the lawful holder of the pertinent bills of lading. This led to the arrest of the vessel upon a claim for misdelivery. The letters of indemnity were on the International Group standard form. The question of whether to grant the applications for injunctions turned on the judge's degree of assurance that the applicant would succeed at trial.