This was a claim for cargo damage and short shipment. The plaintiff applied for the arrest of the Liberian-flagged MV A.

Held: The ship A is prohibited from leaving port. The ship's documents are to be seized by the Court. The plaintiff is obligated within 15 days from the date of delivery of this decision to initiate a civil proceeding for the collection of the claim secured by this temporary measure, and to submit evidence thereof to this Court. The Court may cancel the temporary measure of ship arrest if the defendant provides security in the amount of the monetary claim.

The plaintiff's application states that actual jurisdiction is based on art 841.6, and local jurisdiction is based on art 849.3 of the Maritime Code. The plaintiff's claim represents a maritime claim under art 953.1.4 of the Code [which corresponds to art 1.1.d of the Arrest Convention 1952].

The plaintiff submits that, given that both the plaintiff and the defendant are legal entities with headquarters in third countries, and the ship A is Liberian-flagged and sails in international navigation, the collection of the claim will have to be carried out abroad, so it is assumed that there is a risk that the collection of the claim will be much more difficult. This fulfils the conditions for determining security as a temporary measure in the Enforcement Act and the Maritime Code.

The ship flies the flag of a foreign country - Liberia - which is not a signatory to the Arrest Convention 1952. The aforementioned Convention was ratified by the former State of Yugoslavia, and it is applied in the Republic of Croatia on the basis of art 3 of the Constitutional Decision on Independence and Sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia of 8 October 1991, and according to art 140 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia, it is legally subordinate to the Constitution, and above domestic law.

Therefore, the Republic of Croatia is a State that is considered a party to the Convention from 8 October 1991. Since Liberia has not ratified the aforementioned Convention, there is no presumption of reciprocity between the Republic of Croatia and Liberia, so the ship can be arrested for a claim under art 953 of the Maritime Code.

The procedural rules of the country in which the arrest of the ship is requested are applied, ie the Maritime Code and the Enforcement Act.

The prerequisites for determining a temporary measure to secure a monetary claim are prescribed by the provisions of art 344.1 of the Civil Code, according to which a temporary measure to secure a monetary claim can be determined if the plaintiff provides probable evidence of the existence of the claim, and there is a danger that without such a measure the defendant will prevent or significantly complicate the collection of the claim by alienating, concealing, or otherwise disposing of its property. Article 344.3 stipulates that the danger in art 344.1 is considered to exist if the claim were to be realized abroad.

By reviewing the printout of the ship's data from the portal www.equasis.org, it appears that the registered owner of the ship in question is the appropriate defendant.

Based on the evidence provided by the plaintiff, this Court considers it established that the plaintiff has made the existence of a claim in the sense of art 344.1 of the Civil Code probable, and since the same claim is to be realised abroad, it is considered that the risk in the sense of art 344.3 exists, as a result of which it is necessary to accept the application for the ship's temporary arrest.