ANGSLEY INVESTMENTS LTD V JUPITER DENIZCILIK TASIMACILIK MUMESSILLIK SAN VE TICARET LTD SIRKETI AND OTHERS (THE "LIMA I" AND THE "LIMA II")

High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Ordinary Original Civil Jurisdiction, KR Shriram J and Rajesh S Patil J, 8 March 2023

Admiralty – Vessel arrested – Purported sister vessel attached by injunction – Security furnished for release – Action against foreign corporation defendant – Action in rem – Action in personam – Conjoint or hybrid actions in rem and in personam

Angsley appealed as intervener against an order dated 8 November 2006, whereby the judge had ordered in favour of the respondent bunker supplier, a Turkish company. The original parties to the litigation were on appeal the respondents. Jupiter, originally the plaintiff, had between 9 October 2000 and 13 March 2001 supplied bunkers to the vessel Lima II and its owner, originally the defendants. Following unsuccessful attempts to secure payment of the invoice, Jupiter had filed an admiralty suit and had served the warrant of arrest on the vessel's agent and the port authority, but not on the vessel which was in outer anchorage. Lima II did not submit to the arrest and departed the port of Kandla. An apparent sister ship, Lima I, was on 14 August 2001 ordered by a temporary injunction not to leave the port of Calcutta, with the order confirmed on 31 October 2001. Angsley had purchased the vessel and was working on releasing it from legal proceedings to facilitate a further sale. Angsley having provided security, Lima I was permitted to sail. Angsley now sought the return of its security. Its case was in essence that there had been no suit in admiralty against Lima I; that the court had not had territorial jurisdiction to issue the injunction against Lima I in Calcutta; and that Lima I was not a sister ship of Lima II at any material time.