Muşat & Asociaţii successfully represented Panalpina, one of the world’s leading providers of supply chain solutions, in a litigation for the recovery of the cargo aboard the “A Ladybug”, one of the largest ships in the world, carrying goods valued at more than EUR 70 million.
“The settlement of the dispute between Panalpina and the RoRo Line sailing company, with a significant material stake, determined intense negotiations with interlocutors on 3 continents and more than 10 countries, the complexity of the situation being increased by the very short time available – 2 days – and, in particular, the high number of stakeholders, business operators in the river and sea transportation industry, but also public authorities”, said Gheorghe Buta, Deputy Managing Partner Muşat & Asociaţii.
According to the business agreements between the two companies, RoRo Line had to unload, in December 2012, in the Tianjin – Xingang harbor in China, 12 containers holding drilling machinery intended for the highest profile gold mining project in the world, developed in Mongolia. On the deadline set, the “A Ladybug” unloaded in the Chinese harbor only 8 out of the 12 containers, the other 4 being left aboard after the ship left the harbor, and the gold mining project was thus blocked for more than 5 months. Later on, the ship landed in Constanţa harbor, avoiding once again returning the cargo to Panalpina and invoking the difficulty of the unloading operation.
Under this context, the Muşat & Asociaţii team requested Constanţa Tribunal to order that the goods be subject to seizure, but also to appoint Panalpina as provisional director in relation thereto, until the settlement of the seizure request. In parallel, requests were submitted to the Constanţa Harbor Master for the ship to be retained in the harbor until the litigation is settled. The requests were settled in favor of Panalpina, represented by Muşat & Asociaţii, thus succeeding to recover the goods in a very short while.
The team that contributed to this success was coordinated by Gheorghe Buta, Deputy Managing Partner and Octavian Popescu, Partner Muşat & Asociaţii.
Having over 35 litigant lawyers and providing assistance in more than 3000 files, the Dispute Resolution department of Muşat & Asociaţii is among the strongest on the legal market. Our team handles some of the most complex cases, representing the clients both before Romanian and international courts. The latest accomplishments include the favorable irrevocable decision rendered in the case ThyssenKrupp vs. Metalimportexport (the value of the litigation exceeding USD 50 million), the longest trial ever conducted before the Romanian courts of law and maybe even in Europe, the cancellation of the forced execution in the case of the Sinaia Gondola Lift, assisting one of the most important banks in Romania in an extended series of disputes against a SIF in relation to the capital market, as well as one of the most prominent insurance companies in Romania, in several disputes involving indemnification of more than EUR 25 million. Furthermore, in the administrative litigation sector, our recent achievements count the successful closing of a dispute referring to Bucharest sanitation services, with financial claims of over EUR 400 million or the favorable decision rendered in the challenge procedure lodged with Romanian National Council for Solving Complaints (CNSC), having as its object the purchase of new land plots for the Bucharest underground transportation network.