In November 2017, two merchant vessels - Vessel N and Vessel H - collided with each other in the estuary of Yangtze River, causing hull damages to both vessels. According to the issued by Shanghai MSA in March 2018, Vessel H shall bear major liability while Vessel N shall bear secondary liability for the Accident.
In April 2019, both parties raised claim of their losses against each other, who however failed to come to an agreement in terms of the liability distribution and the claimed amount of damages and losses. As a result, their dispute finally culminated into a lawsuit and a counterclaim one another before Shanghai Maritime Court in September and November respectively.
Shanghai Marine Court then entrusted CMAC Shanghai Sub-Commission to mediate in the case as the Maritime Arbitration and Mediation Procedure was initiated according to relevant regulations, set for optimizing judicial resources and building a flexible, efficient and professional maritime dispute resolution mechanism. With consent of both parties, CMAC appointed Capt. Tony Huang as the mediator in the fore-mentioned collision dispute.
Throughout his career, Capt. Tony Huang has rendered Expert Reports and testified before Chinese Maritime Court / Arbitration Court and International Arbitration Court for a great number of times, helping the judiciary authorities in the compulsory execution with his professional technical consultation. He was appointed by CMAC Committee as Mediator and Arbitrator in 2017 and he has successful experience in dealing with maritime dispute.
In this case, the issue was the liability distribution proportion and rationality of the claim statements proposed by both parties. After having perused relevant case files including the , VDR data, survey report and class survey record, and acquired the status quo of shipping market, Capt. Tony Huang verified the basic facts of the case and the claim statement of both parties with their lawyers in the mediation, discussed with two parties based on the mediation procedures, and give fair and reasonable mediation suggestions on the proportion of accident liability distribution that the parties mutually accepted.
In respect of the claim statements, Capt. Tony Huang carefully compared the breakdown of both claim statements based on nearly 30 years of experience in shipping and insurance industry and expertise in major collision accidents management and ship losses and repair costs assessment, and made reasonable recommendations on the claim statement and claim amount, on which both parties reached a final agreement.
In June 2020, a settlement agreement was confirmed and fulfilled by both parties and the issue was properly resolved. Lawyers of both parties wrote a Thanks Note to CMAC Shanghai Sub-Commission to express their “Special Thanks to CMAC and the mediator Capt. Huang for their professional and efficient mediation which lead to the successful settlement of the case”.
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