NORWAY Law and Practice Contributed by: Kristian Lindhartsen, Lilly Kathrin Relling and Tobias Kilde, Kvale Advokatfirma DA
dently. In accordance with Section 33-2 of the NDA, the bunker supplier must prove a genuine need for security to achieve an arrest. 4.5 Arresting a Vessel Arresting a ship in Norway is considered to be relatively straightforward, and can be arranged quickly and at a reasonable cost. It is not neces - sary for the claimant to provide any documents in their original form, and legal counsel does not need to present a power of attorney from the claimant. A security deposit from the arresting party can be required, which in accordance with Section 97 of the Norwegian Maritime Code must be at least equivalent to port dues for the next 14 days, as well as possibly also expected damag - es for wrongful arrest. If the arresting party is the public authority or the claim is question is a crew claim secured by a lien, the court can disregard the security requirement at its own discretion. 4.6 Arresting Bunkers and Freight Bunkers on board, claims for hire payment and claims for insurance proceeds and bank accounts can be arrested. The prerequisite is that the bunkers must be owned by the debtor – keeping in mind that the bunkers are normally owned by the charterers (not the owners) under a time charterparty. 4.7 Sister-Ship Arrest The arrest of sister-ships is regulated in Section 93 (1) of the Norwegian Maritime Code, which states that only the ship in which the claim arose may be arrested. The exception is where the vessels are owned by the same legal entity, and that legal entity is the debtor for the relevant claim. However, it is not possible to arrest ships with associated ownership – ie, where two ship- owning companies have the same holding com -
pany or are otherwise part of the same corporate structure. 4.8 Other Ways of Obtaining Attachment Orders Applying for a ship arrest is clearly the most commonly used procedure to obtain security for a claim against a vessel under Norwegian law. That being said, if the claimant has a binding decision against the debtor, they may proceed directly with an application for attachment of the debtor’s vessel. In addition, the general right of detention/retention may also give a claimant security by way of physical possession of the vessel – eg, the yard’s right to detain the vessel in its docks until its claims have been paid in full. 4.9 Releasing an Arrested Vessel Under Section 3-4 of the Norwegian Enforce - ment Act and Sections 33-4, 33-5 and 32-12 of the NDA, only a cash deposit or an unconditional bank guarantee issued by a Norwegian financial institution is accepted as security. Under the Norwegian Enforcement of Claims Act, LOIs issued by P&I (protection and indem - nity) clubs are not security recognised by law. Nevertheless, a letter of undertaking may be sufficient security for the claimant to agree to release the vessel on a mutual basis. This is quite common in Norway. 4.10 Procedure for the Judicial Sale of Arrested Ships Judicial sale proceedings are conditional upon the claimant having an enforceable claim in accordance with the rules of the Enforcement Act. All arrests and forced sales are carried out by public district courts in co-operation with the local enforcement office.
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