Are You Really Interested? Court Considers Limits To Registered Shipowners' Rights

Introduction

In a recent case¹ the Supreme Court in its admiralty jurisdiction considered an application under Section 30 of the Merchant Shipping (Registration, Sales and Mortgages of Ships) Law 1963 for an order prohibiting the respondents from dealing with the two vessels registered in their name and ownership. Section 30 empowers the Supreme Court, on the application of any interested person, to make an order prohibiting any dealing with a ship or any share in a ship, and requires the registrar of Cyprus ships to comply with any such order.

Facts

The applicants based their application on a loan agreement entered into in 2008 between the applicants as lenders and the respondents as borrowers. The original agreement was subsequently amended with the signing of three addendums. No mention was made in the original loan agreement of the scope or the purpose of the loan and all three addendums were principally concerned with the extension of the repayment period.