Shanghai
Maritime Court receives gratitude from both of the parties in the same case for
safeguarding the people’s livelihood while protecting the private enterprise
Recently,
Shanghai Maritime Court received a letter of gratitude and a silk banner of gratitude
co-signed by the enforcement applicant and its opposite party, which expressed
the parties’ gratitude to the enforcement judges for properly handling a series
of enforcement cases of labor contract disputes concerning ship Haike 108 crew
members, with their high professional level, patient and perseverant
communications and balanced wisdom.
Shanghai
Maritime Court achieved the win-win result of safeguarding the people’s
livelihood, protecting the enterprise, creating harmony and promoting development,
by enforcing the five crew members’ salaries being fully paid and preventing
the obligated enterprise from going bankrupt.
In this case,
the Panama registered ship Haike 108 is the main asset of the Haikun Shipping
Co., Limited, which is registered in Hong Kong by a private enterprise from
Taixing, Jiangsu Province. Due to the recession in the shipping market a few
years ago, Haikun Company was short of money and couldn’t pay the salaries to
some of its crew members. So Li and his four colleagues sued the company
demanding the defendant to pay their salaries amount to RMB 250,000 yuan. After
hearing the case, Shanghai Maritime Court ruled for the plaintiffs. Haikun
Company, however, could not fulfill its obligation due to the persisting
recession, and the five crew members applied to the court for enforcement.
The enforcement
judges, after investigation, learned that the ship was worth over 10 million
yuan, which was far more than the amount of the creditors’ rights, and that,
with the shipping market getting better this year, the company showed certain
development potential, its business was being improved and it was eager to get
some grace period. The judges, considering the applicant’s eagerness to realize
their creditor’s rights and the honest attitude plus potential ability of the
party under enforcement, communicated with the two parties repeatedly, trying
to find a reasonable settlement to the case. The five crew members finally
accepted the court’s suggestion to suspend the arrest and auction of the ship and
gave Haikun Company some grace period, under the premise of ensuring that ship
Haike 108 was controllable. And Haikun Company also promised that it would
waste no time in paying the salaries in arrears when the money came in.
Recently, Haikun
Company has paid all the arrears to the crew members. Both of the Parties,
therefore, are satisfied with the result and thus sent the cosigned gratitude
letter and the cosigned gratitude silk banner to the enforcement judges for
their proper approaches which brought the win-win situation.