Wrongful Arrest Of Ships

The arrest of a vessel is a very important and powerful weapon. In Malta it is possible to arrest a vessel for the purposes of achieving two objectives. One, through the precautionary warrant of arrest, securing a claim which is as yet undecided - the other, through the executive warrant of arrest, enforcing a favourable judgement already obtained when the judgement creditor refuses to pay the judgement debt.

The bottom line is that an arrest of a vessel can eventually lead to the sale of that vessel to satisfy the judgement debt and in the meantime the vessel is taken away from the possession of her owner and therefore the owner can no longer earn an income from that vessel.

As a result an arrest usually has very serious financial consequences for her owner of disastrous proportions. Typically arrests are unannounced, very often when a vessel is trading, under charter and loaded with cargo. Having such a vessel arrested puts an immediate stop to this activity