On Wednesday, food giant Cargill, Incorporated filed a complaint in the Eastern District of Louisiana against a ship, using a legal process allowing the ship to be sued itself. They allege that the failure to load the ship cause them to incur hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees.
The defendant in the case, in federal court under admiralty law, is shipping vessel M/V Xing He Hai, owned by Ocean Kong Shipping, Ltd., Minsheng Zhi Xin Shipping Leasing Co Ltd., Fortune Ocean Shipping Ltd., and/or COSCO Shipping (USA), Inc., for refusing to load Cargill’s products on the ship. At the time of suit, the vessel is located in the Eastern District of Louisiana
On September 29, the complaint said, Cargill allegedly prepared grain to be loaded on the defendants’ ship, bound for a Cargill affiliate in Japan. The master of the ship “refused to open its hatches to load Cargill’s grain upon direction of vessel owners.” As a result, the plaintiff failed to “receive port funds in advance of calling vessel to buoys and as a result of the vessel’s failure to load there are significant port charges.”
As a result, the plaintiff owes approximately $400,000.00 in fees.
Cargill is using a maritime lien to recoup their funds lost to the incident. This lien effectively treats the ship itself as the wrongdoer and allows the court to take funds from the vessel to repay the plaintiffs.
Cargill is suing the defendants for breach of contract, failure to load their property onto the M/V Xing He Hai, failure to pay port funds, and negligence.
The plaintiff is represented by Courington, Kiefer, Sommers, Marullo & Matherne, LLC.
