The UK Supreme Court has backed a German shipowner in its battle to share the costs of negotiating a lower ransom with pirates after the hijacking of an LPG carrier in 2009.
The case involving LPG Tankerflotte arose from the boarding by Somali gunmen of the 3,200-cbm Bernhard Schulte-managed Longchamp (built 1990) in the Gulf of Aden.
After seven weeks of negotiations, the crisis management team formed by the owner agreed a ransom of $1.85m,
