The Court of Appeal has ruled that the Irish courts have no jurisdiction to hear Castlelyons Enterprises Limited’s claims against NMT Shipping UK Limited over the release of construction machinery shipped to the United Arab Emirates in 2009.
In a judgment delivered on 21 March 2018, Ms Justice Máire Whelan allowed NMT Shipping’s appeal and set aside the High Court orders of 10 October 2016. The appeal concerned jurisdiction only. The court did not decide whether the alleged contract breaches, negligence, breach of duty, fraud or wrongful delivery occurred.
Castlelyons had argued that Ireland could hear its claims under special jurisdiction provisions in the Brussels Regulation, covering both contract and tort. NMT Shipping, a UK company based in Southampton, said the Irish courts lacked jurisdiction. The Court of Appeal held that Castlelyons had not discharged its burden of establishing either exception.
On the contract claim, the court found that NMT Shipping’s services were performed from Southampton. It characterised NMT’s role as arranging freight forwarding and shipping at Castlelyons’ request, with Southampton the centre of gravity of the contractual services. Although the machinery was loaded in Dublin and transported through Bremerhaven to Jebel Ali, the judgment said those shipping operations were carried out by the carrier and its stevedores.
The parties gave different accounts of the role of Fran Coe, who dealt with NMT on Castlelyons’ behalf. NMT’s evidence was that he acted as Castlelyons’ agent and instructed it about the shipment and release of the cargo. Castlelyons alleged that NMT authorised the cargo’s release without the original bills of lading. The Court of Appeal found that Coe was Castlelyons’ agent in the transaction and that documents showed he had authorised the release. It also noted that Castlelyons had made no complaint about wrongful delivery for almost six years after the cargo was delivered.
For the tort claim, the court said the alleged harmful event had not been shown to have occurred in Ireland. The judgment said the relevant communications authorising release were sent from or received outside Ireland, and that consequential financial loss felt in Ireland would not, by itself, establish jurisdiction under the Regulation.
The court therefore declared that the Irish courts had no jurisdiction over Castlelyons’ contract and tort claims against NMT Shipping. The ruling did not determine Castlelyons’ separate claim against EUKOR Car Carriers Inc., which was not a party to NMT Shipping’s jurisdiction application.