THE OWNERS OF THE MOTOR VESSEL “GRAVITY HIGHWAY” V THE OWNERS OF THE MOTOR VESSEL “MARITIME MAISIE”

[2020] EWHC 1697 (Comm), Queen's Bench Division, Admiralty Court, Mr Justice Butcher, 8 July 2020

Admiralty – Procedure – Disclosure – Sufficient disclosure – Plainly incomplete or insufficient – Imposition of striking out sanction by Registrar

Following a collision between the MV Gravity Highway, a newbuild car carrier which was carrying out sea trials before the completion of her fitting out, and the MV Maritime Maisie, a chemical/product tanker, on 29 December 2013 in the Korea Strait, where the Maritime Maisie caught fire and Gravity Highway's bow was badly damaged, the Gravity Highway interests issued these proceedings. On 31 May 2017, liability was apportioned by one third to Gravity Highway and by two thirds to Maritime Maisie. Quantum issues were referred to the Registrar. The claimant's largest item was item 1, cost of repairs. In the litigation, various orders were issued, in particular one in October 2019 directing the defendant to ask clarification questions and the claimant to answer them. That order was amended in December 2019 to encompass an unless order so that if the claimant did not provide the requested information by a date in January 2020, item 1 of their claim should be struck out. Following disclosure by the claimant in January, the defendant requested that item 1 be struck out. The first question was whether the claimant had complied with this order.