Précis: The court ordered that claimants proceeding by way of action produce documents that may be relevant.
Facts: Following the well publicized bankruptcy of Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd. in 2016, the “Hanjin Vienna”, a ship under long term time charter to Hanjin, was arrested at Vancouver and sold by order of the Federal Court. Various claims were made against the proceeds of sale, some by way of action and some by way of affidavits of claim. All of the claims were subject to common case management in the Federal Court. The owner of the “Hanjin Vienna” brought this application for better production of documents from the various claimants.
Decision: Application granted, in part.
Held: The owner seeks production of documents from the claimants which might show they knew of Hanjin’s perilous financial circumstances and the steps they took to deal with that. This is a reasonable request but the motion as drafted is too broad. The request for contracts and invoices should be limited to the year 2016, since there is no evidence of financial difficulties before that time. The documents should be further limited to those involving the “Hanjin Vienna” and her alleged sistership the “Hanjin Geneva”.