Bolshoretskoe’s debt to Daxin arose in July and December, 2002, when Daxin supplied bunker products for two Russian fishing vessels, TOSNO and PHOENIX. To secure these fuelings, Bolshoretskoe signed a guarantee letter to Daxin in which “Bolshoretskoe assign

In late June of 2003, I received an e-mail from Daniel Harris, who introduced himself as maritime lawyer from Seattle. He had found me through the internet and was asking me whether I was interested in helping arrest transshipped cargo in Dalian. I was excited about the task and I surfed Dan's website [http://www.harrismoure.com] and learned Dan owns a small international law firm in Seattle, called Harris & Moure. I replied to him immediately and sent him some relevant provisions concerning cargo arrests under China legal system. He was very happy with my prompt and helpful reply and we soon were working together on the case. He later told me he was so impressed with my responses that he had picked me over numerous other lawyers throughout China.

Brief of the case

OOO Bolshoretskoe is a Russian fishing company that sold 400 Tons of pollock worth around US$700,000 to Alimex Seafood A/S, a Danish company. The pollock was scheduled to be transshipped from Dalian to Europe. Alimex had not yet paid Bolshoretskoe for the product. Bolshoretskoe owed Daxin Petroleum Pte, Ltd., a Singapore fuel supply company, around US$400,000 for fuel. M/V IVAN POLZUNOV, the vessel carrying the pollock, was scheduled to call on Dalian on 4 July, 2003. Our task was to seize the pollock for Daxin to get Bolshoretskoe to pay its debt.

Bolshoretskoe’s debt to Daxin arose in July and December, 2002, when Daxin supplied bunker products for two Russian fishing vessels, TOSNO and PHOENIX. To secure these fuelings, Bolshoretskoe signed a guarantee letter to Daxin in which “Bolshoretskoe assigns

Brief of the case

OOO Bolshoretskoe is a Russian fishing company that sold 400 Tons of pollock worth around US$700,000 to Alimex Seafood A/S, a Danish company. The pollock was scheduled to be transshipped from Dalian to Europe. Alimex had not yet paid Bolshoretskoe for the product. Bolshoretskoe owed Daxin Petroleum Pte, Ltd., a Singapore fuel supply company, around US$400,000 for fuel. M/V IVAN POLZUNOV, the vessel carrying the pollock, was scheduled to call on Dalian on 4 July, 2003. Our task was to seize the pollock for Daxin to get Bolshoretskoe to pay its debt.

Bolshoretskoe’s debt to Daxin arose in July and December, 2002, when Daxin supplied bunker products for two Russian fishing vessels, TOSNO and PHOENIX. To secure these fuelings, Bolshoretskoe signed a guarantee letter to Daxin in which “Bolshoretskoe assign

Brief of the case

OOO Bolshoretskoe is a Russian fishing company that sold 400 Tons of pollock worth around US$700,000 to Alimex Seafood A/S, a Danish company. The pollock was scheduled to be transshipped from Dalian to Europe. Alimex had not yet paid Bolshoretskoe for the product. Bolshoretskoe owed Daxin Petroleum Pte, Ltd., a Singapore fuel supply company, around US$400,000 for fuel. M/V IVAN POLZUNOV, the vessel carrying the pollock, was scheduled to call on Dalian on 4 July, 2003. Our task was to seize the pollock for Daxin to get Bolshoretskoe to pay its debt.

Bolshoretskoe’s debt to Daxin arose in July and December, 2002, when Daxin supplied bunker products for two Russian fishing vessels, TOSNO and PHOENIX. To secure these fuelings, Bolshoretskoe signed a guarantee letter to Daxin in which “Bolshoretskoe assign

Bolshoretskoe’s debt to Daxin arose in July and December, 2002, when Daxin supplied bunker products for two Russian fishing vessels, TOSNO and PHOENIX. To secure these fuelings, Bolshoretskoe signed a guarantee letter to Daxin in which “Bolshoretskoe assign

Bolshoretskoe’s debt to Daxin arose in July and December, 2002, when Daxin supplied bunker products for two Russian fishing vessels, TOSNO and PHOENIX. To secure these fuelings, Bolshoretskoe signed a guarantee letter to Daxin in which “Bolshoretskoe assigns all receivables resulting from production, deliveries and selling of Salmon or Pollock on/from board of F/T PHOENIX in favor of Daxin for the amount of the bunker supply. In addition, Bolshoretskoe agrees that property title to salmon or pollock products covering the amount of the bunker shall pass to Daxin immediately upon processing and/or storage of the products on board of PHOENIX.

Daxin was not paid on its two fuel deliveries, and Bolshoretskoe was refusing to pay. It is estimated the TOSNO and PHOENIX owed a combined total of around $20 million in unpaid debt to various creditors.

Intensive and orderly preparation for cargo arrest

After studying the relevant documents and analyzing the entire history of the case, we determined that either Bolshoretskoe or Alimex would pay Daxin if we arrested the cargo in China. So we set about to do just that.

First, we prepared all necessary legal documents pursuant to Chinese law. Due to the various different legal systems and languages involved (China, Russia, Singapore and the United States), our preparations were extremely time consuming. As we were preparing our documentation and firming up our strategies, Dan was also preparing to come to Dalian.

However, the day before Dan was to leave the United States, he learned that the pollock’s transport v