• Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Supplier Directory
  • SCB YouTube
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Logout
  • My Profile

  • CORONAVIRUS
  • LOGISTICS
    • Air Cargo
    • All Logistics
    • Express/Small Shipments
    • Facility Location Planning
    • Freight Forwarding/Customs Brokerage
    • Global Gateways
    • Global Logistics
    • Last Mile Delivery
    • Logistics Outsourcing
    • LTL/Truckload Services
    • Ocean Transportation
    • Rail & Intermodal
    • Reverse Logistics
    • Service Parts Management
    • Transportation & Distribution
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • All Technology
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud & On-Demand Systems
    • Data Management (Big Data/IoT/Blockchain)
    • ERP & Enterprise Systems
    • Forecasting & Demand Planning
    • Global Trade Management
    • Inventory Planning/ Optimization
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales & Operations Planning
    • SC Finance & Revenue Management
    • SC Planning & Optimization
    • Sourcing/Procurement/SRM
    • Supply Chain Visibility
    • Transportation Management
  • GENERAL SCM
    • Business Strategy Alignment
    • Education & Professional Development
    • Global Supply Chain Management
    • Global Trade & Economics
    • HR & Labor Management
    • Quality & Metrics
    • Regulation & Compliance
    • SC Security & Risk Mgmt
    • Supply Chains in Crisis
    • Sustainability & Corporate Social Responsibility
  • WAREHOUSING
    • All Warehouse Services
    • Conveyors & Sortation
    • Lift Trucks & AGVs
    • Order Fulfillment
    • Packaging
    • RFID, Barcode, Mobility & Voice
    • Robotics
    • Warehouse Management Systems
  • INDUSTRIES
    • Aerospace & Defense
    • Apparel
    • Automotive
    • Chemicals & Energy
    • Consumer Packaged Goods
    • E-Commerce/Omni-Channel
    • Food & Beverage
    • Healthcare
    • High-Tech/Electronics
    • Industrial Manufacturing
    • Pharmaceutical/Biotech
    • Retail
  • REGIONS
    • Asia Pacific
    • Canada
    • China
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East/Africa
    • North America
  • THINK TANK
  • WEBINARS
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • PODCASTS
  • VIDEOS
  • WHITEPAPERS
Home » Suez Ship’s Owner Braces for ‘Thousands’ of Legal Claims

Suez Ship’s Owner Braces for ‘Thousands’ of Legal Claims

Suez Ship
The Ever Given container ship departs the Suez Canal in Egypt on July 7. Photo: Bloomberg.
July 14, 2021
Bloomberg

The owner of the Ever Given, the cargo ship that blocked the Suez Canal for almost a week, hampering global trade and roiling markets, expects to be hit with “many hundreds or thousands” of legal claims.

The scale of future litigation against the vessel’s owners was laid bare at a London court hearing Tuesday where lawyers won a court order to put any potential claims on hold for two months. Two subsidiaries of Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the container vessels’ owner, and Evergreen Group, a Taiwanese conglomerate that operated it under a long-term charter, had asked a London judge for the stay.

Earlier this year, they obtained another order limiting some claims against the ship to 84 million pounds ($116 million).

The 400-meter-long Ever Given grounded in the Suez canal for several days in March, blocking the route in both directions and disrupting global trade. Last week, it began its voyage out of the canal and left Egyptian waters on Wednesday.

The owners expect to be sued by Evergreen and foresee potentially thousands more legal claims lodged by individual cargo owners against individual ship owners, their court lawyer Stewart Buckingham said at the London hearing.

The stay in proceedings will allow similar and overlapping claims to potentially be grouped together, limiting legal costs and court time, he said.

A further court hearing will be held in two months, when the owners will be equipped with more information as to any claims filed against it, allowing them to “see the lay of the land,” Buckingham said.

“The owners’ position is that they are not liable for the grounding incident or its consequences,” he said in a court filing. When the ship became stuck, it was being led by a Suez Canal pilot, who had earlier taken over from the harbor pilot who had driven the ship from the Suez anchorage into the canal, he said.

While there was some damage to the bow of the ship as a result of the incident, no injuries, deaths or pollution are understood to have occurred and the death of a canal worker involved in the re-floating is thought to be unrelated, he said.

Lawyers for the owner didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A lawyer for Evergreen declined to comment.

Any claims filed in the U.K. will likely take years before reaching a resolution. Some may be resolved by arbitration, an alternative and generally private alternative to long and costly court battles.

RELATED CONTENT

RELATED VIDEOS

Logistics Global Gateways Global Logistics Ocean Transportation Global Supply Chain Management Global Trade & Economics Supply Chain Security & Risk Mgmt
  • Related Articles

    Once-Stuck Ship Gets Another Chance for Passage Through the Suez Canal

    Thousands of Russia-Linked Ship Containers Pile Up in Rotterdam

Bloomberg

If Tesla Isn’t Good Enough for an ESG Index, Then Who Is?

More from this author

Wake up to live
“Supply Chains in Crisis”
updates and the latest Supply Chain News!

Subscribe to our Daily Newsletter

Timely, incisive articles delivered directly to your inbox.

Popular Stories

  • Medical drone

    Amazon May Be Proof That Delivery Drones Aren’t Practical

    Last Mile Delivery
  • Warehouse worker

    Why Higher Wages Alone Won’t Solve the Supply Chain Labor Shortage

    Warehousing
  • Adidas

    From Sneakers to Teslas, China Lockdowns Upend Global Supply Chains

    Coronavirus
  • SEC building seal

    Get Ready for the Next Phase of ESG: Mandatory Corporate Due Diligence

    Regulation & Compliance
  • ESG Guide

    Confronting the ESG Imperative in Supply Chains

Digital Edition

Scb may 2022 sm

2022 Supply Chain ESG Guide

VIEW THE LATEST ISSUE

Case Studies

  • 3PL Doubles Productivity With Robots to Fulfill Medical Supply Orders

  • E-Commerce Company Cuts Order Fulfillment Time by 40%

  • Fashion Retailer Halves Fulfillment Time With Omichannel Automation

  • Distributor Scales Business by Integrating Warehouse Automaton Software

  • Fast-Growing Fashion Brand Scales E-Commerce Fulfillment With Whiplash

Visit Our Sponsors

Yang Ming Alithya Barcoding
Blue Yonder BNSF Logistics Generix
GEP GIB USA GreyOrange
Here Honeywell Intelligrated Inmar
Keelvar Kinaxis Korber
Liberty SBF Locus Robotics Lucas Systems
Nvidia Old Dominion Parsyl
Redwood Logistics Saddle Creek Logistics Schneider Dedicated
Setlog Holding AG Ship4WD Shipwell
Tecsys TGW Systems Thomson Reuters
Tive Trailer Bridge Vecna Robotics
Whiplash    
  • More From SCB
    • Featured Content
    • Video Library
    • Think Tank Blog
    • SupplyChainBrain Podcast
    • Whitepapers
    • On-Demand Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
  • Digital Offerings
    • Digital Issue
    • Subscribe
    • Manage Your Subscription
    • Newsletters
  • Resources
    • Events Calendar
    • SCB's Great Supply Chain Partners
    • Supplier Directory
    • Case Study Showcase
    • Supply Chain Innovation Awards
    • 100 Great Partners Form
  • SCB Corporate
    • Advertise on SCB.COM
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • Data Sharing Opt-Out

All content copyright ©2022 Keller International Publishing Corp All rights reserved. No reproduction, transmission or display is permitted without the written permissions of Keller International Publishing Corp

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing