Mar -Train Heavy Haulage Ltd v Shipping.Dk Chartering A/S (t/a Frank&tobiesen A/S) & Ors
2014
COMMERCIAL COURT
United Kingdom
CORAM
- HIS HONOUR JUDGE MACKIE QC
Areas of Law
- Civil Procedure
- Contract Law
- Tort Law
2014
COMMERCIAL COURT
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The legal dispute between Mar-Train, an Irish haulier, and F&T, a Danish freight forwarder, involved the transportation of Siemens wind turbines, raising issues about jurisdiction and agency. The court found F&T consented to English jurisdiction based on the RHA 1998 and BIFA 2005 terms and determined ALS acted as F&T’s agent. Resulting litigations in English and Danish courts lead to procedural complexities.
Judgment
Judge Mackie QC:
This is an application by the Defendant (“F&T”) to set aside service of the claim form issued by the Claimant (“Mar-Train”) and for a declaration that the Court has no jurisdiction to hear the case. Mar-Train says that it has a good arguable case that F&T consented to English jurisdiction in the form of clause 16 of the RHA Terms 1998 and/or clause 28 of the BIFA 2005 terms in a manner which satisfies the requirements of Article 23 of Regulation (EU) 44/ 2001. F&T disagrees.
Unfortunately the application was optimistically listed for a two hour hearing on a Commercial Court Friday and it was necessary to adjourn. There are seven witness statements. Three are from solicitors, Ms Protopapas and Mr Swinnerton for F&T and Mr Marsh for Mar-Train. Four are from employees of companies involved in the dispute, Mr Martin, the Managing Director of Mar-Train, Mr Jerry Smart formerly operations manager of ALS (a company to which I will refer and who has given two statements) and Mr Per Ebdrup, the Manager of F&T. There are also detailed points of law. Mr Jenns’ admirable skeleton argument alone is 34 pages long.
Mar-Train is a road haulier, a small family firm incorporated and domiciled in Ireland. F&T is a freight forwarder incorporated and domiciled in Denmark. F&T entered into a project freight forwarding Framework Agreement dated 25 June 2007 with Siemens, a company incorporated and domiciled in Denmark. One of these projects was the transportation of eight wind turbines from Ejsberg, Denmark to Curragh Mountain Wind Farm, Cork, Ireland. F&T engaged an English company based in Hull, Abnormal Load Services (International) Limited (“ALS”), to handle the inland operations within Ireland, which in turn engaged Mar-Train physically to perform the road transport from Cork port to the windfarm. On 29 May 2009 an 87 tonne nacelle (which was a component part of one of the 8 wind turbines) was being transported by Mar-Train by road to the Curragh windfarm and fell off the truck into a peat bog. This incident has given rise to an earlier action in this Court (now settled) and separate proceedings in Denmark which are due to be tried in November 2014 and this action. It is common ground that if this action remains alive it should be stayed until the Danish case is over.
The contracts
The Framework Agreement is in English. It set out terms governing the execution by F&T of project related transportation of Siemens’ wind turbine components world-