DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Johannes Grove Nielsen, Camilla Søgaard Hudson, Lars Rosenberg Overby and Malthe Hersom Kløft, Bech-Bruun
a dispute between co-owners of a ship on property rights, possession, the use or revenues of the ship or mortgages on the original ship. Arrest in associated ships is not possible. According to Danish law, arrest can thus only take place without the owner being personally liable for the claim if the claim is also secured by a maritime lien. This applies regardless of the creditor being domiciled in a country that has implemented the Convention without a cor - According to the Danish Merchant Shipping Act, an arrest requires that the owner of the ship can be held personally liable, unless the claim is secured by a mar - itime lien. Consequently, if bunkers were supplied to a chartered vessel, and if the bunkers were ordered by the charterer and not by the owner, the claim can - not form the basis of an arrest, as the ship’s owner is not liable and as bunker suppliers are not afforded a maritime lien under Danish law. If, however, the owner is liable towards the bunker supplier, the bunker sup - plier may apply for an arrest of the vessel. A supplier may, irrespective of the foregoing, apply for an arrest pursuant to the Danish Administration of Justice Act, as previously mentioned. responding reservation. 5.4 Unpaid Bunkers The charterer will not have authority to bind the vessel by ordering necessaries, unless an authority to do so has been granted to the charterer subject to general principles of Danish contract law. 5.5 Arresting a Vessel The application must contain an indication of the spe - cific circumstances that, in the creditor’s opinion, may prevent them from obtaining coverage of their claim. The documents that the creditor wishes to rely on must also be attached (copies are sufficient). If these requirements are not met, the bailiff’s court may dis - miss the case. A power of attorney is not required to be submitted with the request for arrest. The arrest application must be drafted in Danish. Any supporting documentation is usually accepted in English, but the opponent or
the court may occasionally require a translation into Danish. The arresting party will usually have to provide secu - rity for the damages and inconvenience that the arrest may cause the arrestee. The enforcement court speci - fies a sufficient amount, which will normally not exceed an amount corresponding to five days’ loss of hire. Both parties may appeal the enforcement court’s deci - sion regarding the amount of security to the Danish High Court, which will review the decision. The Danish High Court’s decision is final and cannot be appealed. There are no rules regarding the form in which the arresting party has to provide security. Often, enforce - ment courts demand a bank guarantee, but there is no statutory authority to such a demand. The court will usually also accept a letter of guarantee from a Bunkers and freight may be subject to arrest in accord - ance with the Danish Administration of Justice Act. In reality, there are several challenges concerning bun - ker arrest. For example, as previously mentioned, it is a requirement that the execution of the claim be levied against the owner. This means that arrest can only be carried out with regard to a debtor’s own assets, and not to assets owned by anyone else; as bunker tanks are normally not emptied completely, it may be a challenge to determine which part of the bunker is owned by a specific debtor. 5.7 Sister-Ship Arrest For certain maritime claims, it is possible to make an arrest of a sister ship. This requires the sister ship to have been owned by the same legal entity that owns or owned the vessel with which the maritime claim is concerned at the time the maritime claim arose. 5.8 Other Ways of Obtaining Attachment Orders According to the Danish Merchant Shipping Act, apart from ship arrest, a ship-builder or a ship-repairer can exercise their right of retention over a ship to secure a claim in respect of the ship-building or repair. protection and indemnity (P&I) club. 5.6 Arresting Bunkers and Freight
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