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 failure to perform the above-mentioned term of contract, the whole of the tea and goods to the value of two hundred and sixty-one thousand eight hundred and nineteen taels (Tls. 26,819.00) was lost to the plaintiffs.

On the strength of the above facts, the plaintiffs prayed judgment against the defendants for the estimated value of the goods, and in addition for fifty thousand taels (Tls. 50,000.00) by way of damages for breach of contract.

In January 1926, the plaintiffs filed a motion in the same Court, asking that service of the petition be made on the Sovtorgflot (the Soviet Mercantile Fleet) at No. 1 Whangpoo Road, Shanghai, and that the said Sovtorgflot as assignees and representatives in title of the Russian Volunteer Fleet be called upon to defend this action. On 25 March 1926, the Mixed Court granted the motion and ruled that it had jurisdiction in the matter. On 12 April of the same year, Counsel for the Soviet Mercantile Fleet moved for rehearing. On 10 October the motion for rehearing on the question of jurisdiction was granted, such rehearing to be set before the

original Court. However, the Mixed Court never heard the case again. After the abolition of the Mixed Court...