Owner and/or Demise Charterer of the vessel A SYMPHONY (IMO No. 9249324) v Owner and/or Demise Charterer of the vessel SEA JUSTICE (IMO No. 9309514)

[2023] SGHCR 24 High Court Registrar 29 December 2023 HC/ADM 61/2021 ( HC/SUM 4434/2022 )

22 cases cited (18 SG, 4 foreign) Cited by 2 cases

Key facts

Court	High Court Registrar
Decided	29 December 2023
Judge	Nicholas Lai
Charges / claim	Conflict of Laws, Admiralty and Shipping
Counsel	AsiaLegal LLC, Incisive Law LLC, C Sivah, Gho Sze Kee, Liao Yanting, Loh Wai Yue, Tan Xue Ting, Timothy Tan

Source: [2023] SGHCR 24, High Court Registrar, decided 29 December 2023 — eLitigation. Updated 10 July 2026.

Catchwords

Conflict of Laws — Natural forum Admiralty and Shipping — Practice and procedure of action in rem — Duty of disclosure

Practice Areas

Conflict of Laws Admiralty and Shipping

Judges (1)

Nicholas Lai Delivered

Counsel (8)

AsiaLegal LLC Firm Incisive Law LLC Firm

C Sivah Counsel for the defendant

Gho Sze Kee Counsel for the plaintiff Liao Yanting Counsel for the plaintiff Loh Wai Yue Counsel for the defendant

Tan Xue Ting Counsel for the defendant

Timothy Tan Counsel for the plaintiff

Parties (2)

Owner and/or Demise Charterer of the vessel A SYMPHONY (IMO No. 9249324) Plaintiff

Owner and/or Demise Charterer of the vessel SEA JUSTICE (IMO No. 9309514) Defendant

Case Significance

The "Sea Justice" [2023] SGHCR 24 is a decision of Assistant Registrar Nicholas Lai in the General Division of the High Court, delivered on 29 December 2023 in Admiralty in Rem No 61 of 2021. The defendant applied in Summons No 4434 of 2022 to stay the Singapore proceedings on the ground of forum non conveniens in favour of proceedings in the People's Republic of China, to set aside the warrant of arrest against its vessel for alleged material non-disclosure, and to have partial security of S$8,846,383 returned. AR Lai granted the stay application while dismissing the application to set aside the warrant of arrest, addressing the natural forum and the duty of disclosure in actions in rem.

Summary

This admiralty action arose from a 2021 collision off Qingdao, China, between the vessels A Symphony and Sea Justice, causing substantial damage and marine pollution. The Defendant applied to stay the Singapore proceedings on forum non conveniens grounds in favour of China, to set aside the warrant of arrest for alleged material non-disclosure, and to have security returned. The Assistant Registrar granted the stay finding Qingdao the natural forum, dismissed the set-aside application as the non-disclosures were immaterial, and ordered the security returned.

What was The "Sea Justice" [2023] SGHCR 24 about?

It was an admiralty application by the defendant vessel owner before Assistant Registrar Nicholas Lai to stay Singapore proceedings for forum non conveniens in favour of China and to set aside a warrant of arrest, decided on 29 December 2023.

How did the court rule on the stay and arrest applications in the Sea Justice case ([2023] SGHCR 24)?

Assistant Registrar Nicholas Lai granted the defendant's stay application on forum non conveniens grounds in favour of the People's Republic of China, but dismissed the application to set aside the warrant of arrest against the vessel.

Statutes Cited

Limitation Act (Cap 163) Cases on this Act →

Cases Cited (22)

SG (3)

[1998] SGHC 303 [2015] SGHC 330 [2021] SGHC 292

SLR (15)

[1993] 2 SLR(R) 136 [1994] 3 SLR(R) 574 [2003] 2 SLR(R) 457 [2003] 3 SLR(R) 362 [2006] 1 SLR(R) 358 [2007] 1 SLR(R) 377 [2008] 4 SLR(R) 994 [2010] 1 SLR 1129 [2010] 3 SLR 294 [2011] 1 SLR 391 [2012] 2 SLR 289 [2014] 1 SLR 860 [2017] 2 SLR 265 [2018] 3 SLR 1 [2018] 3 SLR 423

UK (1)

[1987] AC 460

AU (1)

[2014] FCA 74

HK (2)

[2018] HKCFI 2474 [2022] HKCA 157