Mixed Court Declines to Decide Between Rival Claimants The question of the disposal of the Russian Volunteer Fleet steamers was again before the Mixed Court on Saturday, a motion being submitted to Mr. Blackburn (British Assessor) and Mr. Ivanoff, by Mr.
Fessenden, representing Captain Lukhmanoff, who claims to be general manager of the company under the Vladivostok regime.
The motion was, to set aside the judgement of the Court in respect of the claim by which the New Engineering Works, Were awarded Tls. 170,000 for repair work done and given authority to hold nine ships of the Fleet now in Shanghai as security for payment. The ground of the motion was, that at the time the judgement was given no proper agent or representative of the Russian company had been served, or appeared in court.
On behalf of his client, Mr. Fes-sender now offered to pay to the New Engineering Works the full amount of Tls. 170,000 in settlement of their claim, if the company would Pointed out that any one of the nine ships was several times the value of the claim, but the New Engineering Works Ca. had refused to hand them over for the reason that they did not know to whom the vessels belonged and that, if they, were handed over to the wrong party, the company might be held liable.
The Court took a position similar to that adopted in the Wu Ting-fang case, deciding that it had no jurisdiction jin determining which of the rival claimants, at Paris or Vladivostok, were the lawful agents of the Russian Volunteer Fleet company, and declined to give a ruling on the question.
Mr. Fessenden accordingly announced that in these circumstances, his client would not pursue the matter further in the. Mixed Court, but would seek relief elsewhere,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.