COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers Co., Ltd. v PT OKI PULP & PAPER MILLS & 2 Ors

Case Significance

COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers Co, Ltd v PT OKI Pulp & Paper Mills and others [2024] SGHC 92 was a Grounds of Decision of the General Division of the High Court of Singapore delivered on 28 March 2024 by S Mohan J, in Admiralty in Personam No 50 of 2022 (Summons No 2676 of 2023), following hearings beginning on 27 September 2023. The claimant was COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers Co, Ltd, and the defendants were PT OKI Pulp & Paper Mills, COSCO Shipping Specialized Carriers (Europe) B.V., and all other persons claiming or entitled to claim damage, loss, expense or indemnity arising out of contact between the vessel "LE LI" (IMO No 9192674) and the jetty or structure at Tanjung Tapa Pier on or about 31 May 2022. The proceedings concerned limitation proceedings commenced in Singapore and whether an injunction should be granted to restrain foreign proceedings.

The catchwords frame a range of issues, including, in arbitration, the restraint of foreign judicial proceedings and the scope of an arbitration agreement — in particular whether a stand-alone tort claim for damage done by a shipowner or carrier to a trestle bridge owned by the cargo shipper, and whether contractual defences in the bills of lading, rendered the tort claim a dispute "arising out of or in connection with" the contract of carriage evidenced by the bills of lading. In contract, the catchwords raise whether a solicitor's proposal to enter into an exclusive jurisdiction agreement, subject to the client's final approval, was an offer capable of acceptance. In civil procedure, they address whether an injunction should be granted to protect the court's processes, jurisdiction and judgments, and whether it was vexatious and oppressive for a limitation defendant to commence or prosecute foreign proceedings after limitation proceedings had begun in Singapore. The claimant was represented by Rajah & Tann Singapore LLP and the defendants by JLex LLC, with the judgment referencing the Arbitration Act, the Limitation Act, the Securities and Futures Act, the Supreme Court of Judicature Act and the UK Arbitration Act.