5. The facts of the case against Mr. A
The facts necessary for understanding the legal issues are as follows.
An old family-owned shipping company in West Norway – Company X – with Mr. A as its central person – bought in 2007 a LASH-carrier, built in 1989. The carrier had a length of 263 meters, a breadth of 37 meters, and the steel weight was 21 000 tonnes. The acquisition was not a success. The vessel was laid up in a fjord in Western Norway from 2007 to February 2017. For the greater part of this period, it was in so-called “lay up class”, but nevertheless with substantial yearly costs for its owner. There were, of course, a number of plans for the use of the vessel and solving the related financial problems. These efforts require no mention in the present context, until in 2014‑2015 a contact was established with Wirana, a Singapore domiciled company dominant in the scrapping business: “one of the largest cash buyers”. The outcome of this was that the vessel was sold in 2015 to a Wirana company: Julia Shipping. However, the vessel was not physically transferred; it remained in the Norwegian fjord with the obligation on the seller to maintain the vessel to the standard required for a sea test.
Eventually an agreement was made, obligating Company X to rebuy the vessel. When this obligation was not fulfilled by Company X, there then followed a period of discussions on possible solutions. Parallel to these discussions, Julia Shipping started preparations for physically taking over the vessel, and in this process Company X and Mr. A gave important assistance. The outcome was that the rebuying obligation was not pursued.
A sea test was satisfactory, and on February 20, 2017, the vessel sailed with a Julia Shipping crew – apparently bound for docking in Dubai. A month earlier, the vessel had been registered in Comoros and given the name Tide Carrier. Two days after departure, the vessel had broken down and was towed into the Norwegian port of Farsund. A number of difficulties arose during the stay in Farsund, but they are outside the scope of this article. It is sufficient to mention that the authorities declared that the vessel was not allowed to leave Norway without permission. Eventually such permission was granted; the vessel was renamed Harrier, towed to Turkey, and scrapped there.