On November 30, 2017, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit became the first federal appellate court in the United States to resolve competing maritime lien claims in the aftermath of the OW Bunkers collapse. There are pending appeals in similar maritime lien actions in the Second Circuit, Fifth Circuit, and Ninth Circuit. A full copy of the Eleventh Circuit’s opinion in Barcliff, LLC v. M/V DEEP BLUE, et al., can be found here. In Barcliff, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama’s decision that a physical supplier of fuel under contract with an OW Bunker entity did not have a maritime lien, but that OW Bunkers UK, a fuel broker and the contractual counterparty of the vessel owner, did have a maritime lien that was validly assigned to ING Bank. Continue reading >