On 6 January 2018, MV “CF CRYSTAL” underwrote by PICC Shanghai (laden with sorghum about 64,000 tons, cargo value of about $20 million and were shipped from the United States to Dongguan) collided with Panamanian tanker "SANCHI" at waters of 160 nautical miles to the east of Yangtze Estuary. The accident caused the tanker “SANCHI” on fire, exploded, and eventually sank. While MV “CF CRYSTAL”was broken at the bow, caught fire, and the crew abandoned ship. It is initially estimated that the total losses of the parties involved in the accident was amount to 5 billion yuan.

      PICC Shanghai entrusted our lawyers Judy C Z Lin, Colin Y F Yang and Wei Mingzhong to handle the case. Since the Hong Kong Court's maritime liability limit is several times than that of courts in China's mainland, the owner of “SANCHI” is likely to file a lawsuit in Hong Kong, so our firm applied to Shanghai maritime court for limitation Fund for maritime claims soonest as possible after we took over the case. As expected, the shipowner of “CF CRYSTAL” filed a law suit in Hong Kong on the same day and raise a jurisdictional objection against Shanghai Maritime Court.

       At present, both the Shanghai Maritime Court and the Shanghai High People’s Court have ruled to reject the jurisdictional objection and allow the establishment of the limitation fund. In this case, we have successfully established the limitation fund for maritime claims in Shanghai Maritime Court, and achieved a major victory. At present, Shanghai Maritime Court is proceeding the case.

      The case was the largest and most influential maritime case in the world in 2018. The case involved parallel litigation between the High Court of Hong Kong and the maritime court in mainland China, which is quite typical.