Samsung Asks US Judge Help to Retrieve its Goods from Hanjin vessels

Samsung Electronics on Thursday asked a U.S. judge to permit the tech company to pay cargo handlers and remove its goods held by Hanjin Shipping's vessels stationed near U.S. ports Reuters reported.

Samsung's urgent request comes at a time when ,Hanjin the world's seventh-largest container carrier filed for bankruptcy and court protection both in Korea and the US.

Hanjin's dramatic collapse last week comes at time that peak shipping period is ongoing ahead of the year-end holiday season, stranding cargo for tech companies of HP and Samsung.

Reuters said that nearly $14 billion worth of cargo has been tied up globally as ports, tug boat operators and cargo handling firms refuse to work for Hanjin because they fear Hanjin does not have enough to cash to pay their services.

According to Reuters, Samsung said an order this week by a U.S. bankruptcy judge did not encourage the Hanjin ships to enter U.S. ports as intended. Hanjin lambasted the judge's ruling saying the Judge misunderstood maritime law, the bankruptcy code and Korean law.

Samsung is requesting the judge to issue an order barring the seizure of ships and allow it and other cargo owners to retrieve their goods by paying cargo handlers, who have been demanding payment guarantees.

"There's no earthly reason why these parties should not be permitted to cut their own deals," Samsung said in a Thursday court filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Newark, New Jersey.

Cargo handler Maher Terminals LLC, which operates a container terminal in the Port of New York and New Jersey, backed the plan to let owners of cargo pay for handling. But it urged the court in a filing not to protect Hanjin vessels from seizure without also considering the rights of suppliers.

"Maher is currently being victimized by having hundreds of Hanjin containers clogging up its facility and impeding the ability of Maher to properly service its other customers," the company said in court papers on Thursday. Nothing in the court order "should be deemed to compel parties like Maher to continue to provide services without receiving payment or adequate assurance of such payment," it added.

Total Terminals International LLC, a West Coast marine terminal operator partly owned by Hanjin, earlier in the week told the court that a plan was needed to pay for several levels of port services, such as tug boats and stevedores, and to ensure Hanjin vessels would be able to refuel and leave port.

"This lack of a short term plan for these vessels will lead to mayhem," it said in the filing.

An attorney for Hanjin, Ilana Volkov, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. judge, John Sherwood, will hear the request on Friday.

The Seoul Central District Court is presiding over the receivership filed by Hanjin last week. A foreign representative of the shipping line has filed for so-called Chapter 15 bankruptcy with the Newark court.

Chapter 15 is meant to allow a company to seek recognition by U.S. courts of orders issued overseas and to ask U.S. judges to assist in a foreign corporate debt restructuring.