Rizaeff Frères v Soviet Mercantile Fleet

• Jurisdiction: China
• Date: 30 September 1927
• Court: Provincial Court (China)

Republic of China, Provisional Court of Shanghai (Civil Division).

Rizaeff Frres

and

The Soviet Mercantile Fleet.

Jurisdiction Territorial Exemptions from and restrictions upon Public ships and other property of foreign States State-owned merchant vessels Soviet Mercantile Fleet Whether immune from jurisdiction The law of the Republic of China.

The Facts.On 17 December 1925 the plaintiffs filed a petition in the former International Mixed Court at Shanghai,[1] containing the following allegations: (1) that the plaintiffs were merchants of Persian nationality carrying on business in Shanghai; (2) that the defendant, who was the representative in title of the Russian Volunteer Fleet, was a Russian company carrying on business at 1 Whangpoo Road, Shanghai; (3) that by agreements in writing made by and between the plaintiffs and the Russian Volunteer Fleet the latter undertook for reward to convey quantities of tea and other goods to Bacou, Boukhara, Samarkand and elsewhere as the said agreements specified; (4) that it was a term of the agreements that the Volunteer Fleet should convey all the said tea and goods in the first place to Vladivostock and there effect the dispatch of them by the Chinese Eastern Railway to their ultimate destinations; and (5) that in consequence of a...