DENMARK Law and Practice Contributed by: Johannes Grove Nielsen and Camilla Søgaard Hudson, Bech-Bruun
The enforcement court will closely monitor a forced sale of a vessel, and it is not possible to conduct a private sale. The judicial sale of a vessel will be announced in the Official Danish Gazette and in other relevant places after specif - ic orders from the bailiff’s court. The announce - ment must be made at least six weeks before the sale, and at least twice. If the vessel is registered in the DAS or the DIS, the judicial sale will be registered therein. Usually, the owner of the vessel will not be deprived of the right of disposal entirely, and the owner will therefore still be responsible for the maintenance of the vessel. In addition, the owner is not allowed to dispose of the vessel in a way that could impair the arrestor’s right. Maritime liens on a ship take priority over other maritime claims and must be paid in the order in which they are listed; and those mentioned under the same number shall rank equally. However, rewards for salvage, removal of wrecks, and contribution in general average shall rank above other maritime liens that arose earlier; and, as regards the relationship between rewards for salvage, removal of wrecks and con - tribution in general average, the youngest rights shall rank before the oldest. Maritime liens on a ship are not extinguished if the property rights to the ship are transferred to another party or if the registration of the ship is changed. Claims secured by registered mortgages and all other claims have priority after maritime liens in the order in which they have been established. A vessel may be subject to several mortgages, and there is no general rule requiring consent
from higher-recorded mortgagees. It is not uncommon for negative-pledge agreements to be agreed to and registered. 4.11 Insolvency Laws Applied by Maritime Courts Rules on reorganisation analogous to Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code are set out in Chap - ter 1(a) of the Danish Bankruptcy Act. According to this act, arrest cannot be made during reor - ganisation proceedings. The rules imply that the debtor’s creditors are barred from seeking satis - faction in the debtor’s assets through individual prosecution when a reconstruction treatment has been initiated. 4.12 Damages in the Event of Wrongful Arrest of a Vessel Under Danish law, a person who has obtained an arrest on the basis of a claim that turns out not to exist must pay the debtor compensation for loss and tort. The same applies when the arrest lapses or is revoked due to subsequent circumstances if it must be assumed that the claim did not exist. The liability is strict if the claim for which an arrest has been made turns out not to exist. If the arrest is otherwise found wrongful, the creditor is liable for loss and tort on a fault-based basis. 5. Passenger Claims 5.1 Laws and Conventions Applicable to the Resolution of Passenger Claims The regulations on carriers’ liability for passen - gers and insurance obligations, as well as pas - sengers’ possibilities of being compensated and passenger rights, are stipulated in five sets of regulations:
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