Law Firm “ANK” defended a shipowner before the Supreme Court in the case related to the eco-control of a vessel`s ballast water

In April 2019, as a result of eco-control of segregated ballast water of m/v “VIKA” in the Port of Odesa, the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Crimean-Black Sea District fined the foreign shipowner for over 1 mln UAH which caused shipowners court claim and trial for more than 3 years.

The courts of the first and appeal instances supported the legal position of the shipowner and ruled that the ecologists’ actions were illegal and the paid funds should be recovered from the state budget of Ukraine in favour of the shipowner.

In December 2021, Environmental Inspectorate filed the cassation appeal to the Supreme Court claiming that the dispute does not belong to the jurisdiction of administrative courts, therefore the previous court judgements should be cancelled and the court claim should be rejected.

As a result of the cassation proceeding, the Supreme Court left the ecologists` cassation appeal without satisfaction and finally closed this long-standing matter, concluding that this is a public law dispute covered by the jurisdiction of the administrative courts.

ANK litigation team in this case was represented by the attorneys-at-law Artem Volkov, Nina Kostiuk, and Kostiantyn Moriakov, under the general supervision of the Managing Partner, attorney-at-law Oleksandr Kyfak.