Constanta Court (Minutes no. 271/MF/2001 – unpublished) decided that the requirement of article 908 (3) of the Commercial Code was met, given that the shipowner, in order to remove the arrest set on its ship, submitted a letter of guarantee issued by the insuring P&I Club.
We hereby state that the plaintiff agreed with the submission of the letter of guarantee in this form. Otherwise it is questionable whether the Court may allow the removal of the arrest upon the presentation of a P&I letter of guarantee (which is not and has no characteristics of a bank letter of guarantee), given that the debtor objects to it.
The New Code of Civil Procedure (article 1.057) provides that, at the request of the debtor, and if the party to the benefit of which the bail is submitted expressly declares that it agrees to this submission, the bail (which is submitted in order to arrest the ship) may also consist of financial instruments which may serve as instruments of payment. For identity of reason, we believe that the same procedure should also be used for the bail submission in order to remove the arrest of the ship, the agreement of the party in whose favour the bail is submitted being absolutely necessary.