The collapse of the OW Bunker group in late 2014 has led to a series of interpleader claims in different jurisdictions in which competing claims to the deposited funds have been made by the physical bunker suppliers and ING Bank, the assignee of OW. An interpleader claim has recently been heard by the Federal Court of Appeal in Canada in ING Bank NV and Others v Canpotex Shipping Services Ltd and Others 2017 FCA 47. It concerns the effect of funds deposited by the time charterer and the potential liability of the vessel under a maritime lien.
In 2014 OW UK supplied bunkers in Vancouver to two vessels on charter to Canpotex. Following the collapse of the OW group, competing claims for payment for the bunkers supplied were made by the physical supplier, Petrobulk, and ING Bank as the assignee of OW UK’s receivables. Canpotex interpleaded and obtained an order that the of OW UK’s invoice be paid into the US trust account of its solicitors, which payment would be treated as a payment into court. The interpleader covered only Canpotex’s liability.
Canpotex subsequently added the shipowners as plaintiffs to its statement of claim and sought a judgment as to whether Petrobulk or ING was entitled to all or part of the trust fund and a declaration that following payment out any and all liability of both Canpotex and the shipowners was extinguished. In July 2015 Russell J heard the claims against the trust funds, (2015 FC 1108). There was a dispute about which terms governed OW UK’s supply of the bunkers to the vessel: the OW Group standard terms; or Schedule 3 of the OW Fixed Price Agreement. Both terms provided for the variation of the contract where the physical supply of the fuel was undertaken by a third party, but were worded differently.
Russell J found that there had been an oral agreement to apply the latter terms and the consequence was that Canpotex became jointly and severally liable under the contracts made between OW UK and Petrobulk. Upon payment of that purchase price to Petrobulk, Canpotex would come be under no obligation, contractual or otherwise, to pay any amount representing the purchase price for the marine bunkers to OW UK or the Receivers. He then ordered Petrobulk be paid out of the trust fund and that ING be paid the mark up due to OW UK and that Canpotex’s and the shipowners’ liability in regard to the bunker delivery should be extinguished, as well as any and all liens.
The Federal Court of Appeal has overruled the decision. Interpleader proceedings had to be conflicting claims over the same subject matter which were mutually exclusive. The contractual claims against Canpotex advanced by OW UK and by Petrobulk were such claims, but Petrobulk’s assertion of a maritime lien was not a conflicting claim, and was a claim against the shipowners, and not against Canpotex. If OW UK was contractually entitled to payment of the trust funds, that would extinguish Canpotex’s contractual liability, but Petrobulk’s maritime lien claim would remain alive. The Judge had been wrong to extinguish the shipowner’s liability for that claim and had also wrongly admitted oral evidence as to the terms of the spot bunker purchases. The terms applicable were those found in the OW Group standard terms and the case was returned to the judge for reconsideration.
If the judge finds that OW UK is contractually entitled to payment of the trust funds, this raises the prospect of ING recovering in full under the OW UK invoices from the trust fund established by Canpotex, and of Petrobulk doing likewise through its maritime lien against the vessel, if the vessel can be arrested in Canada.
