ETR maritime team has been devoting to provide legal services on maritime, international trade, and insurance. After years of steady development, the team has obtained well-recognized achievements in this area. With the team’s great efforts, ETR wins the China Business Law Awards 2021 in maritime at the China Business Law Journal. Some of the cases handled by the team have been selected as top-quality cases and typical cases, which have been also disclosed as special reports by CCTV and Guangdong TV.
The maritime lawyers at ETR have a broad wealth of knowledge concerning this area of law and provide professional legal services in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. We have represented a broad range of clients including large domestic and foreign insurance companies, mutual P&I associations, state-owned banks, shipping companies, and most of the well-known international mutual insurance associations. We also keep close cooperation with law firms from Britain, America, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, etc. to deliver all-around and comprehensive maritime legal services across borders.
The team has achieved substantial resolutions on behalf of hundreds of clients in maritime disputes, especially majoring in the cases of ship collisions and self-damage, etc. Their clients include Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance Company of China, Ltd, People’s Insurance Company of China (PICC), China Pacific Property Insurance Co., Ltd, China Development Bank Co., Ltd, Maritime Safety Administration of P.R.C, China COSCO Shipping Group, China Merchant Group, MAERSK Group, China Shipowners Mutual Assurance Association, China Fishery Mutual Assurance Association, Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A (MSC), Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha(NYK), CMA CGM Shipping Co., Ltd, Nippon Yusen Bulk Cargo Transport (China) Co., Ltd, Jiangsu Huahai Shipping Group, Guangzhou Shipping Co., Ltd, ZCTS SHENZHEN Co., Ltd, Centrans Ocean Shipping Logistics Company, Guangdong Branch, COSCO Logistics (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd, COSCO International Freight (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd, Jotun COSCO Marine Coatings (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd, Guangdong Galanz (Group) Co., Ltd, Nanjing Textile Import & Export Co., Ltd, Global Market Group (Asia) Limited, and so on.
The services the team provides include but are not limited to marine cargo transportation, marine insurance claims and recovery, international logistics and freight forwarding, ports, docks, waterways, and marine engineering, shipbuilding, lease, and financial lease, purchase of ship and equipment, ship collision and contact, oil pollution and environmental damage, salvage and wreck removal, general average, personal injury, maritime fraud, and so on.
Practice Highlights:
◆Acting on behalf of PICC Guangdong Branch in subrogation claims against an international shipping company in an international maritime cargo contract dispute. The case was selected as an approved case by the Supreme People's Court.
◆Acting on behalf of China COSCO Shipping Group to handle the collision case between Vessel J and Vessel X. A total of more than 200 million CNY was claimed to Vessel J from all parties. After reconciliation, litigation, overseas arbitration, and other methods, Vessel J finally only needs to assess to compensate all parties for losses of less than 100 million CNY, successfully recovering huge economic losses for the client.
◆Acting on behalf of a state-owned bank limited company in a dispute over a ship mortgage loan contract against an ocean transportation limited company. The amount involved was nearly 160 million CNY. The case was settled through court mediation and the other party agreed to pay the principal and interest in full. Quickly obtaining an effective and enforceable judgment document saved the client a lot of time and litigation cost of millions of dollars.
◆Acting on behalf of foreign owners and shipowners mutual insurance associations to handle bundles of disputes over bulk cargo damage, involving liquid bulk cargo, coal, soybeans, DDGS, sulfur, and other cargoes. The disputed amount of the cases is mostly over 10 million CNY, and most of the cases are settled with a settlement amount far lower than the claim amount.
◆In a case of cargo pollution in China, the team acted on behalf of the owner to defend the cleanup cost of more than six million CNY claimed by the cleanup company. After the active defense, the team finally settled the case with about three million CNY at the first instance stage to resolve the greater risk that the owner may bear.
◆Successfully mediated a marine insurance contract dispute whose subject value was nearly 10 million CNY in the Guangzhou Maritime Court, which became the first case successfully mediated in the pre-litigation joint mediation by the Lawyers Mediation Studio jointly established by the Guangzhou Maritime Court and the Guangzhou Judicial Bureau and obtained judicial confirmation.
◆Successfully mediated four foreign-related maritime cases in Guangzhou Maritime Court at one time, with a subject value of nearly 18 million CNY. The lawyers saved judicial resources, safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of clients, and quickly resolved a social conflict by closing the cases by mediation.
◆Acting on behalf of a Chongqing international economic and trade limited company to sue UBI Logistics Co., Ltd and MAERSK (China) Shipping Co., Ltd, Guangzhou Branch for delivery of goods without B/L. The case wins the "Business Achievement Award" given by Guangzhou Lawyers Association and is selected in Selected Cases of Guangdong Higher People’s Court published by Guangdong Higher People’s Court.
◆Acting on behalf of a state-owned international transportation enterprise to handle two sales contract disputes over the “Belt and Road Initiative” ship exportation. This piece of experience was reported by CCTV in Arbitration in China on December 12, 2018, and also won the "Business Achievement Award" from Guangzhou Lawyers Association.
◆Acting on behalf of a shipping company of Zhuhai to sue a shipping company of Zhaoqing in a ship collision damage liability dispute. The case was selected as one of 20 typical cases in the first batch of cross-border disputes in the Greater Bay Area issued by the Guangdong Higher People's Court and was also broadcast on the Collision and Rules program in the Bay Area View series on Guangdong Radio and Television Zhujiang Channel.
◆In April 2020, the Guangzhou Maritime Court announced the top ten classic cases of 2019. The successful case filed by Cai Ming against Guangdong Fishery Mutual Insurance Association over the maritime P&I contract dispute handled by Xueguang YANG was successfully selected. The case has aroused a strong response in the field of fishery insurance in China and is of great reference significance to insurance claims for fishermen’s injury.
◆A domestic vessel and a foreign freighter escaped after a collision in the South China Sea, resulting in the sinking of the foreign freighter, which total loss was nearly 40 million CNY., ship losses, and salvage costs included. As the agent of the domestic vessel, the team finally settled the case with an external payment of approximately $150 thousand after several rounds of negotiations with all parties, thus avoided a case that might cause diplomatic disputes.
