The BVI company Werton Management Ltd (WM) owned the MY Meridiana. According to an employment contract dated 1 December 2012, it hired Mr BV as captain and Mr GN as a seafarer. WM sent BV and GN a letter of dismissal on 28 September 2022.

GN sought and obtained an order from the President of the Toulon Commercial Court, arresting the vessel as security for a wages claim in the amount of EUR 140,000. WM sought the reversal of the arrest order and the release of the vessel. The Court dismissed WM's application. WM appealed to the Court of Appeal.

Held: Appeal upheld. Arrest order reversed and vessel released.

The preventive arrest of the ship was carried out pursuant to the combined provisions of the Arrest Convention 1952, and French law, resulting from arts L5114-22 and R5114-15 ff of the Transport Code.

Article L5114-20 of the Transport Code provides that the seizure of the vessel is governed by this provision, and art L5114-22 of the Transport Code provides that any person whose claim appears to be based on its principle can request authorisation from a judge to carry out a precautionary seizure of the vessel, without, however, specifying the competent judge.

From the combined reading of arts L511-3 of the Code of Civil Procedure designating the competent judge in matters of preservative attachment, and L721-7-2° of the Commercial Code, the competent judge is in principle the enforcement judge, ie the President of the relevant Commercial Court, when the arrest is to preserve a debt falling within the commercial jurisdiction.

In this case, the alleged debt is in the nature of wages, which only an industrial tribunal can hear, and not a commercial court. The President of the Commercial Court of Toulon was thus not competent to order the seizure of the ship.

The arrest order on the motion of 14 October 2022 must be retracted and the vessel released.

[See also Werton Management Ltd v HF, 28 septembre 2023, Cour d'appel d'Aix-en-Provence, RG n° 23/04449.]