Government isn’t talking about its lawsuit against the owners of the superyacht Parsifal III — which allegedly spilled about 30 tonnes of lead into Virgin Islands waters when it ran aground at Carrot Shoal in 2013 — but documents available at the High Court Registry suggest that the parties could be headed to trial in June.
However, documents in two other cases — both listing Parsifal III as the claimant and government as the defendant — suggest that the yacht owners are seeking to limit their liability.
According to a claim form in one of those cases, Parsifal III contends that it should owe no more than $167,000 in damages — a little more than half of the roughly $300,000 spent so far in government’s cleanup efforts at Carrot Shoal.
In that case, lawyers representing Parsifal III and the Attorney General’s Chambers met in court on Jan. 21 to report on their settlement talks, but no settlement had been reached by then, according to the court docket at the Registry.
Instead, the docket states, the court issued an order that “both parties agree there are no outstanding directions necessary,” and set a trial date for June 20.
Another case
There is also another case open at the Registry that lists Parsifal III as the claimant. In that matter, Parsifal III representatives filed an “originating notice of application” in May 2014.
Attorneys have said in court that the yacht owners are challenging the constitutionality of the VI Merchant Shipping Act. They did not elaborate further, and officials at the Registry said without explanation that documents for that case are not available to the public.
Government officials haven’t confirmed whether a trial will take place in June: Ministry of Natural Resources and Labour Permanent Secretary Ronald Smith-Berkeley and Kelvin Penn, the acting chief conservation and fisheries officer, both said they didn’t know the exact status of the case.
Likewise, officials at the AG’s Chambers declined to comment, and Parsifal III attorney Hazelann Hannaway-Boreland did not respond to requests for comment before this issue’s press deadline yesterday afternoon.
Grounding
On Jan. 2, 2013, the 178-foot sailboat ran aground at Carrot Shoal just off the southern tip of Peter Island, rupturing its keel and allegedly spilling about 30 tonnes of lead shot onto the reef.
Kevin Rowlette — the owner of Husky Salvage & Towing, one of the companies contracted to help clean up the spill — told the Beacon last March that about two thirds of the lead was cleaned up from the reef after the accident.
Mr. Penn said last year that he expected more cleanup efforts to take place, but that he wasn’t sure exactly when that would happen. He explained that the initial efforts were designed in large part to clear the material that was at risk of being consumed by marine life, and the remaining lead is buried in sea floor sediment or is in deeper waters.
Conservation and Fisheries officials said last November that no additional cleanups have taken place since 2014, and Mr. Penn offered no further update on the cleanup efforts when this reporter spoke to him last week.
Government has spent more than $300,000 to clean up the lead, including a $27,000 initial survey followed by a $250,000 joint contract with Husky and Commercial Dive Services, and another $42,000 contract with CDS in 2013, according to Beacon archives.
The Parsifal III is owned by Kim Vibe-Petersen, a Danish entrepreneur who invented a coffee- and cappuccino-brewing machine used in restaurants and hotels around the world, according to yachting magazines.
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