BHAGWAN MARINE PTY LTD V THE SHIP “TERAS BANDICOOT”

[2020] FCA 1224, Federal Court of Australia, McKerracher J, 25 August 2020

Admiralty – Ship arrest – Application for service of arrest warrant and writ by electronic means – Vessel not crewed – Dispensation from service on board – Admiralty Rules 1988 (Cth), rules 30 and 43 – Discretion under rule 6A of the Rules

The plaintiff sought an order for service by email of a warrant for the arrest of a ship. The vessel Teras Bandicoot had been moored in Darwin since February 2018, without crew on board or any maintenance or operation since then. The plaintiff’s claim concerned mooring fees for the use of the plaintiff’s cyclone mooring. The owner of the vessel was the Australian company Teras Maritime Proprietary Ltd (“TM”), registered in the Northern Territory. Its registered office appeared to be a vacant plot of land. The vessel was, to the plaintiff’s best knowledge, being operated out of Singapore and an earlier letter to an email address at TM had produced a response from W, identifying himself as writing for and on behalf of TM, with an email address at TM’s sole shareholder. Rule 6A of the Admiralty Rules 1988 (Cth) gave the court the discretionary power to grant relief from the requirements of the Rules: “The Court may dispense with compliance with any of the requirements of the Rules, either before or after the occasion for compliance arises”.