Time critical legal recourse question for friends being screwed during boat shipping

[Sven]

We have some recent new friends in a Catalina 36 in the guest slip next to ours here in Cabrillo. It is a retired Australian couple who bought the boat here and has paid to have the boat shipped to Australia. IOW they have already paid the $30k or so in full.

Due to a stevedore strike (?) the boat is being rushed through the loading process. A couple of hours ago they were told the company would not pay for two shifts of loading so their boat will not be loaded and the ship will leave without their boat tomorrow (or the next day ?).

They have return tickets to Australia for next week and are at a loss for what to do.

What kind of help should they seek ? Is there any way to get an emergency injunction to keep the ship from leaving port until the pre-paid cargo has been loaded (even if that might cause retaliation on board) ? Is there anything equivalent to a carpenter's lien, but from the shipping customer perspective or any other little known avenues for them to pursue in the next 12-24 hours ? This can't be the first time this has happened so I suspect someone who knows the ins-and-outs would know what to do.



-Sven

 

[toddster]

No clue, but I would seek assistance from a logistics or freight-forwarding company with shipping experience. Friends of mine recently shipped all their worldly goods to Europe in a shipping container, tried to make the arrangements themselves, and ended up getting blackmailed at every step of the way. They paid many times the estimated cost.

 

[mherrcat]

I doubt they can stop the ship from sailing. Seems like the best they could hope for is a refund or leave the boat in Cabrillo and arrange to ship it at a later date. The shipping company has no options for them?

 

[Sven]

Thanks for the replies.

This is really sad to watch. They are a really nice older couple, very spry, genuinely friendly and enthusiastic but at a loss as to what to do this late in the game.

I did get a reply from a friend who is a marine surveyor and has some real yard/marine experience under his belt. Apparently one of the key questions is if they paid for the shipping separately from the loading onto the ship. In the one case they may be "hosed" while in the other they may have legal recourse. In either case he suggested that they get an admiralty lawyer right away and they just did.

This is the second time we've seen a foreign buyer of a US boat get really taken to the cleaners in the last few months.



-Sven

 

[exoduse35]

Admiralty Attorney post hast! Also you might try to plead your case to the local harbour athorities and coast guard, It is a long shot but you may be able to raise enough stink to slow the ship til it gets the boat on board.

 

[mherrcat]

This doesn't happen to be the Yacht Express service, does it?

 

[Sven]

Admiralty Attorney post hast! Also you might try to plead your case to the local harbour athorities and coast guard, It is a long shot but you may be able to raise enough stink to slow the ship til it gets the boat on board.

Good thoughts. That's actually the way I'd think too if it was me caught in the vise ... all-out assault. I just hate the responsibility of suggesting someone else do that ... many long war stories.

I just had another friend/lawyer suggest that they pay for the second shift out of pocket just to get the boat on board and then proceed from there. Take action to get the money back once you are back "down under".

Thanks !



-Sven

 

[Sven]

This doesn't happen to be the Yacht Express service, does it?

No idea, but we'll ask tomorrow. I think they set most of this up with a broker back home and the stevedore strike just got them into the mess, but I really don't know. This isn't a good time to press them for details as I felt really bad when "Bruce" kept apologizing and apologizing for not thanking us for trying to help, because they were so busy trying to make phone calls and get in touch with the proper contacts.



-Sven

 

[Loren Beach]

It occurs to me (and I doubt that I understand much/any of the legal fine points at all) that lots of large shippers of containers have cargo that is time sensitive for delivery to foreign markets and that they must have recourse that they routinely invoke when 40 of their boxes get set aside, at the last minute, on the docks.

Like a person being "bumped" from a passenger carrying airplane, there may be some solution that gets the cargo back on to the "next flight or ship".

Other than expressing sympathy, I just do not know what to say.


Further Thought: Just like vacationers often take out "trip insurance" in case their cruise ship or airline or hotel leaves 'em in the lurch, I wonder if shipments and handling like this are routinely insured.
No help for these distressed sailors, but the thought did just occur to me. After all, insuring against a calculated % chance of a loss is what that whole industry does...
(?)

LB

 

[Sven]

The story changes but their boat was not loaded.

The company that set it up is http://www.sevenstar-yacht-transport.com/

We talked to a friend here who is a longshoreman and he said there is no strike or slowdown or anything like that going on.

The story from the "service" is now that Long Beach does not lift boats on board with masts standing, as had been arranged. When Bruce got an e-mail earlier from another company telling him that LB has this restriction he wrote to his rep asking them to make sure that what they were signing him up for would actually be possible. He has the reply e-mail from them where they assure him that they do indeed do this all the time and there is no problem.

Their boat missed the ship and they are still leaving for Australia on the 17th. The company is now saying they realize it is their responsibility and that they will make it right, but how ?

Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. Bruce and June certainly appreciated the suggestions we relayed to them.



-Sven