Latest news with #SingaporeInternationalCommercialCourt
The Star
4 days ago
- General
- The Star
Singapore shipowner told to pay US$1bil over marine disaster
The highest court has ordered a Singaporean shipping firm to pay US$1bil (RM4.2bil) in damages for causing the island's worst marine pollution when its vessel sank four years ago. The Supreme Court directed Express Feeders, the owner of the MV X-Press Pearl which sank off Colombo Port in June 2021 after a fire that raged for nearly two weeks, to pay the money within a year. 'The X-Press Pearl... shall make further compensation payments as may be directed by this court,' the 361-page judgment read. Environmentalists had brought the case to court, alleging that both government authorities and firm owners had failed to prevent the fire from becoming an unprecedented ecological disaster. The shipping firm initially apologised and paid US$7.85mil for the immediate cleanup and as compensation for fishermen who were deprived of their livelihoods following the catastrophic incident. They then obtained an order from London's admiralty court in July 2023, limiting their liability to a maximum of £19mil. Sri Lanka has appealed that decision. The Sri Lankan government also filed a lawsuit against the shipowner in the Singapore International Commercial Court, claiming unspecified damages. That case has been put on hold pending a decision from the admiralty court in London. There was no immediate response from the Singaporean owner or their local representatives. The vessel was carrying 81 containers of 'dangerous cargo', including acids and lead ingots, when it sank. Tonnes of microplastic granules from the ship inundated an 80km stretch of beach along Sri Lanka's western coast. Fishing was prohibited for months due to the plastic pollution. Sri Lankan authorities believe the fire was caused by a nitric acid leak, which the crew apparently knew about nine days before the blaze started. Ports in Qatar and India had refused to offload the leaking nitric acid, and the vessel arrived in Sri Lankan waters with the leak. — AFP
Time of India
6 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Sri Lanka orders Singapore shipowner to pay US $1 bn over marine disaster
Advt Advt Sri Lanka's highest court on Thursday ordered a Singaporean shipping firm to pay US$1 billion in damages for causing the island's worst marine pollution when its vessel sank four years Supreme Court directed Express Feeders , the owners of the MV X-Press Pearl which sank off Colombo Port in June 2021 after a fire that raged for nearly two weeks, to pay the money within a year."The X-Press Pearl... shall make further compensation payments as may be directed by this court," the 361-page judgement had brought the case to court, alleging that both government authorities and firm owners had failed to prevent the fire from becoming an unprecedented ecological shipping firm initially apologised and paid $7.85 million for the immediate cleanup and as compensation for fishermen who were deprived of their livelihoods following the catastrophic then obtained an order from London's admiralty court in July 2023, limiting their liability to a maximum of 19 million pounds ($25 million). Sri Lanka has appealed that Sri Lankan government also filed a lawsuit against the ship's owners in the Singapore International Commercial Court, claiming unspecified case has been put on hold pending a decision from the admiralty court in was no immediate response from the Singaporean owners or their local vessel was carrying 81 containers of "dangerous cargo", including acids and lead ingots, when it of microplastic granules from the ship inundated an 80-kilometre (50-mile) stretch of beach along Sri Lanka's western coast. Fishing was prohibited for months due to the plastic Lankan authorities believe the fire was caused by a nitric acid leak, which the crew apparently knew about nine days before the blaze in Qatar and India had refused to offload the leaking nitric acid, and the vessel arrived in Sri Lankan waters with the
Hindustan Times
17-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Singapore court dismisses Indian judges' arbitration for copying from past award
The Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) has set aside an arbitral award worth ₹80.29 crore by an international arbitration panel comprising three retired judges from India, after concluding that the judges had delivered their decision with a 'closed mind', having copied large sections from previous awards without independently considering the facts and submissions in the present case. The SICC ruling comes just a month after the Court of Appeal of the Singapore Supreme Court upheld the annulment of an international arbitration award chaired by former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dipak Misra after discovering that nearly half the decision was copied verbatim from earlier awards he had authored in separate but related disputes. In the present case, SICC judge Roger Giles held earlier this month that the arbitral tribunal majority, consisting of two retired Indian judicial officers identified only as 'Judge A' and 'Judge C,' had approached the arbitration with a 'closed mind' by extensively reproducing reasoning from earlier related awards rather than conducting fresh analysis. The case concerned a dispute over contract termed 'CTP-11,' a 2016 agreement between a government owned special purpose vehicle (SPV) in India and a consortium of three infrastructure companies for the construction of a segment of India's flagship Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC). The consortium had sought a price adjustment following a 2017 notification by the union labour ministry revising minimum wages. The SPV, however, rejected the demand saying that the price escalation had already been covered. After attempts at amicable resolution and reference to the Dispute Adjudication Board failed, the dispute was referred to ICC arbitration seated in Singapore. The tribunal was composed of three retired Indian judges, two nominated by the parties and a presiding arbitrator appointed jointly. The final award, issued in June 2024 by a 2:1 majority, granted the consortium ₹80.29 crore against the ₹92 crore it had sought, with compound interest and a direction for the claimant SPV to bear 80 percent of the arbitration and legal costs. However, the dissenting arbitrator argued the claim was barred and, even if that were not the case, a claim of only ₹34.26 crore would have been admissible. The claimant SPV then approached the SICC alleging that the majority arbitrators had not applied their mind to the specific facts and submissions relevant to the case and that they had instead, engaged in 'cut-and-paste' reasoning from earlier awards in related but separate arbitration. The claimant even flagged that the majority arbitrators, Judges A and C, had cited a 'non-existent' contractual clause to support their award. Incidentally, much of the copy-paste alleged in the present award pertaining to contract CTP-11 was made from a previous award—the CTP-13 award, which itself had been copied from two previous awards. Most importantly, SICC noted that Judge C had presided over the CTP-13 matter. This CTP-13 award is the one that was passed by a tribunal chaired by former CJI Dipak Misra and was set aside by the Singapore Supreme Court in April this year. The CTP-13 award also in a DFC related contract dispute, was found to contain 212 out of 451 paragraphs copied from prior awards authored by Justice Misra in unrelated cases. In the present case, SICC judge Giles said he found overwhelming evidence that the majority arbitrators, Judges A and C, had relied extensively on reasoning from the CTP-13 arbitration. In the scathing 85-page ruling, Judge Giles noted that out of 176 substantive paragraphs in the CTP-11 award, 157 had been copied either verbatim or with minor editorial changes from the CTP-13 award. That award, in turn, had drawn from two other decisions, the 'CP-301 and CP-302,' both also involving Judge C. 'The Majority's reasoning and analyses was largely a reproduction of the substance of earlier awards.. This demonstrated that the tribunal failed to apply its mind to the specific facts and arguments of the present arbitration,' SICC said. It noted that the copying extended to contractual provisions not present in the CTP-11 agreement at all. For instance, paragraph 150 of the award reproduced a price adjustment formula from the CP-302 contract and not from the present CTP-11 contract. 'This was not merely a clerical error but a clear indication of reliance on past reasoning without fresh analysis,' SICC said. 'The error arose solely from wholesale copying from the CTP-13 award, which had itself copied from earlier proceedings,' it said. Further compounding the issue, the tribunal had applied Indian law instead of Singapore law to determine pre and post award interest, once again mirroring past rulings without justification, SICC noted. Judge Giles said such errors were a direct result of the Tribunal having replicated 'prior templates.' The SICC formally set aside the CTP-11 award and directed the parties to agree on the costs of the present proceedings. HT reached out to Justice Misra for a comment but he did not respond to our calls and texts.
