The Court of Appeal in London has ruled that Venezuela cannot be served with any injunctions in a legal battle over a collision with a cruise ship that sank one of its patrol vessels.
The 8,400-gt cruise ship RCGS Resolute (built 1991) collided with Venezuela’s Naiguata (built 2009) in the Caribbean in 2020.
The naval ship capsized off the island of La Tortuga. All 44 crew members were rescued before it sank.
Venezuela brought civil proceedings against the shipowner and the UK P&I Club, in both Venezuela and Curacao.
In March 2021, the insurer was granted an anti-suit injunction against Venezuela by a High Court judge.
This was on the grounds that there was no immunity from jurisdiction under the State Immunity Act because this would preclude the granting of injunctive relief, and the proceedings related to a commercial transaction, not a sovereign act by Venezuela.
Venezuela challenged this in the High Court and judge Sir Ross Cranston overturned the decision, affirming that injunctions cannot be granted against sovereign states.
He said this was not an unjustifiable infringement of the European Convention of Human Rights.
The club has now failed in its appeal against this decision.
Quadrant Chambers barristers Poonam Melwani KC and Jamie Hamblen, who appeared on behalf of Venezuela at the first hearing, said the judgment offered important guidance that will inform future cases.
Differing accounts
Venezuela’s Ministry of Defence had accused the 170-berth cruise vessel of carrying out a hit-and-run on the naval ship and failing to take part in rescue efforts.
The shipowner at the time, Bunnys Adventure & Cruise Shipping, gave a different account of the collision, saying the Naiguata actually caused its own casualty by ramming into the RCGS Resolute.
“The cruise vessel RCGS Resolute has been subject to an act of aggression by the Venezuelan Navy in international waters,” Bunnys Adventure said.
Gunshots were also fired, the company added.
