Promarina SA, the owner of the MV Chiapes, and Anchovetas SA, the owner of the MV La Porteña, (the plaintiffs) constituted a fund for limitation of liability relating to a collision that occurred on 9 May 2012 in Panamanian waters. The plaintiffs later filed a lawsuit against Agroganadera Ave Maria SA (Agroganadera), the owner of the MV Sand Master, claiming for damage resulting from the same collision. Both cases were brought before the Second Maritime Court. Previously, Agroganadera had commenced a claim for this collision against the plaintiffs, which was brought before the First Maritime Court. The limitation of liability regime of Panama is contained in the Maritime Procedure Code and mirrors the provisions of the Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims 1976 (LLMC 1976).

The Second Maritime Court, noting art 516 of the Maritime Procedure Code (MPC), which establishes the obligation to accumulate all proceedings related to the same collision into a single process, ordered the accumulation of the limitation of liability process into the collision process. Agroganadera appealed the decision, arguing that its collision claim was filed before the cases of the Second Maritime Court. Hence, it contended that the newer cases must be aggregated to the older claim brought before the First Maritime Court.

Held: The Court of Maritime Appeals (CMA) modified the decision. Applying local procedural rules (art 14 of the LLMC 1976) the CMA ordered the two collision cases to be aggregated into the limitation of liability proceeding. This was based on art 529 of the MPC, which states that the 'court before which the claim of limitation of liability of the shipowner is brought may take cognisance of and accumulate all pending proceedings or those to be filed in other jurisdictions as a result of the voyage’. This procedural rule is set in order to serve better arts 587 (counterclaims), 596 (aggregation of claims), 601 (distribution of the funds), 605 and 606 (bar to other actions) of the MPC (which correspond to arts 5, 9, 12 and 13.2 of the LLMC 1976).