Win for Pasha in Auto-Carrier Suit
Wednesday, June 12, 2002Updated 5:19 p.m. ET, Wed Jun 12, 2002, Excerpt from JoC ONLINE-- A U.S. district court judge in Mississippi handed a significant victory to a company trying to enter the West Coast-Hawaii ocean trade with a newly-built auto carrier.
The ruling on Wednesday found that Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. had breached a performance bond by failing to pay to complete the vessel.
The $70 million vessel, the first of two planned for the trade, was financed with bonds issued by the new carrier, Pasha Hawaii Transport Lines and backed by Title XI financing from the Maritime Administration. Travelers issued a performance bond in the amount of the construction contract as part of the transaction. Travelers later refused to pay on the performance bond, saying it was not obligated to pay under the circumstances.
Construction on the 4,000 vehicle-capacity vessel at the Halter Marine shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss. was suspended in July 2001 a few months after Halter filed for bankruptcy.