BATON ROUGE – A Bahamas-based company is suing a Georgia firm with property in Louisiana for alleged damages and unlawful detention of a chartered cargo vessel.
Diligence Maritime LTD filed a lawsuit Jan. 15 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana against Agribusiness United Savannah Logistics LLC, Agribusiness Multi-Modal Commodities Inc., Agribusiness United North America Inc., Agribusiness United DMCC and Agribusiness United Afrique S.A.R.LAU, alleging breach of contract.
According to the complaint, AU Savannah chartered Diligence Marine’s vessel, the AEC Diligence, on June 25 in a voyage from the Mississippi River with stops in Portugal and Casablanca, Morocco. The suit says that in unloading the ship’s cargo, the defendant’s stevedore damaged the crane aboard the AEC Diligence. In addition, the claim states that while the ship was still in Morocco in August, another firm had the vessel arrested twice for debts allegedly owed by other firms, costing Diligence upward of $200,000 for detention fees.
Diligence Maritime seeks combined damages of $545,349, plus interest, costs and attorneys’ fees. It is represented by attorneys Andrew S. de Klerk, T. Patrick O’Leary and Brandon K. Thibodeaux of Frilot LLC in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana Case number 3:16-cv-00034