Bhagwan Marine Pty Ltd v The Ship “Lauren Hansen”

Bhagwan Marine Pty Ltd brought proceedings against the ship "Lauren Hansen" for unpaid mooring fees and sought an arrest warrant for the vessel. The ship is owned by Teras Maritime Proprietary Limited and has been in a dead-ship status since mid-2019, with no crew present. The Federal Court was asked to decide whether it was appropriate to grant alternative service of the arrest warrant and writ by electronic means, as serving the writ and executing the warrant on-board the ship would not bring the arrest to the attention of any party. The court considered the principles underlying r 6A of the Admiralty Rules 1988 (Cth) and the Practice Guideline, Special Measures in Response to COVID-19 Admiralty and Maritime (SMIN-2), which extend to other circumstances in which it may be appropriate to waive compliance with the Rules in order to address their objects and the safety of persons concerned who might be carrying out obligations under the Rules. The court concluded that the circumstances in this case warranted the exercise of its discretion under r 6A of the Rules and granted the application for alternative service of the arrest warrant and writ by electronic means. The writ and arrest warrant were to be served by email to the owner of the ship, and execution of the arrest warrant was to be effected by sending a copy of the arrest warrant and any other required documents by email to the same address. The costs of the application were to be costs in the proceeding.

The court made orders pursuant to r 6A of the Admiralty Rules 1988 (Cth) to waive compliance with r 30 of the Rules to allow service of the writ to be effected by email. The court also waived compliance with r 43 of the Rules to allow execution of the arrest warrant to be effected by email. The Admiralty Marshal was directed to serve the writ and a copy of the orders by email to '[email protected]'. Service of the writ was deemed to have been effected one hour after the email was transmitted, subject to the Admiralty Marshal not receiving an undeliverable notification within that time. The Admiralty Marshal was also directed to effect execution of the arrest warrant by sending a copy of the arrest warrant and any other required documents by email to the same address. Execution of the arrest warrant was deemed to have been effected one hour after the email was transmitted, subject to the Admiralty Marshal not receiving an undeliverable notification within that time. The costs of the application were to be costs in the proceeding.