The appellant requested that the arrest of the Clipper Kylie be notified to the maritime authority of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, where the vessel was registered. This request was denied by the Court of first instance. The appellant claimed that this refusal would leave its claim, both national and foreign, without privileged priority in the event of an auction of the vessel, which would render its security nugatory.

Held: Appeal dismissed.

The basis of the precautionary measure that the appellant wishes to be recorded by the foreign ship registration authority, is the appearance of credibility of a right invoked by the appellant to secure a claim whose enforcement is the object of the main process.

That claim, and therefore its current appearance of being sound in law, has been founded, evaluated, and granted under the applicable national legislation. Therefore, the scope of the expression 'national claim as a foreigner' used by the appellant to qualify its right and justify its claim to carry out jurisdictional acts in a registry other than the national registration authority cannot be understood. The arrest of a foreign-flagged vessel is carried out by means of an official letter that must be delivered to the maritime authority (art 539 of the Navigation Law).

The new organic regulation, approved by Law 19,170 - which replaced the legal norm approved by Decree Law 18,300/56 validated by Law 14,467 - establishes that the National Ship Registry, dependent on the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy (Argentine Naval Prefecture), has responsible for taking note of any document that provides for arrests, interdicts or any other subtraction from ownership that affects ships, boats, or naval vessels, whether they are registered nationally or in a foreign country (art 1(c)). In the Domain Division of the National Ship Registry, the judicial orders that order arrests, interdict, or any other judicial measure that affects the free availability of ships, boats, or naval vessels must be registered, whether they are registered nationally or in a foreign country (art 7(e)), for which purpose the name of the vessel and flag must be indicated (art 8(b)). At the request of the competent court, the National Registry of Vessels will report on any seizures that are levied on the vessel (among other charges) prior to the decree of the auction (art 553 of Law 20,094), the proceeds of which will be distributed in accordance with the rules of the special contest of privileged creditors (arts 554-560) and/or - depending on the case of claims in equal rank of privilege or of common claims - with the effects of the preference of date and time of registration (arts 23 and 24 of the Regulation of the National Registry of Vessels). These are the rules applicable by virtue of Argentine law that gave legal support to the appellant's request to seize a foreign ship.

Therefore, there is no applicable rule of the Argentine international legal system which provides a reasonable factual and normative basis for the appellant's claim in trying to register a ship arrest abroad through an order of the national courts.