Arrested ship still in port

Press, 7 May 1980, Page 6

Arrested ship still in port

. The ill-fated refrigerated meat vessel Pacific Fruit is beginning to look like a permanent fixture at the Port of Lyttelton. Little progress appears to have been made in lifting the warrant of arrest against the vessel and' a writ for almost $3 million brought against the vessel’s owners by her previous charterers. Minor repairs and survey work continue to be done on the 4628-ton Taiwaneseowned vessel while her future remains in the hands of the High Court. if the warrant of arrest, which puts her in the legal custody of the registrar of the High Court, could be lifted, the civil action involving the writ could possibly be settled in a London court. The Pacific Fruit begins her thirty ninth day in port today, having arrived at Lyttelton from Timaru on March 31 for repairs to minor collison damage. But, soon after her arrival, the arrest warrant and writ were served upon her by a Christchurch

lawyer, Mr T. M. Abbott, on behalf of her then charterer, Nippon Yusen Kaisha, of Japan. Mr Abbott said yesterday, “there is nothing further to report.” An application by her owner, Great Pacific Navigation Company of Taipei, Taiwan, to have the arrest warrant lifted was heard in the High Court in Christchurch in mid-April and subsequently adjourned although it was reported that lawyers for the charterer and the owner were nearing agreement on terms for having the warrant lifted. The legal actions taken against the Pacific Fruit stem from her delivery of meat to Iraq last year, meat that was subsequently rejected by Iraqi authorities and returned to Timaru. There has been considerable speculation that the rejection 'of the meat was because the vessel had once sailed under the the Israeli flag. New Zealand inspectors found the cargo to be completely fit for human consumption.