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Regal Empress to be sold at auction
A federal magistrate also rules that the 326 crew members should be repatriated soon.By MICHAEL BRAGA
michael.braga@heraldtribune.com
TAMPA -- A federal magistrate ruled Tuesday that the Regal Empress, a 900-passenger cruise vessel seized by U.S. marshals on Easter weekend, should be sold at auction within 15 to 30 days.
The 326 crew members, who still remain on board the ship, should be repatriated to their home countries as soon as possible, the ruling said.
Presiding over a meeting of creditors of the defunct Regal Cruises in Tampa, Magistrate Judge Mary Scriven approved requests for money to buy food for crew members and fuel to keep the ship's generators running.
She also ruled that the Regal Empress could be moved from Port Manatee to a less expensive docking facility, such as the International Ship Repair & Marine Services dockyard in Tampa. That operation charges $1,200 per day for docking and wharfage compared with $2,700 per day at Port Manatee.
The magistrate's decisions came just one day after Regal Cruises declared it was shutting down for good and cancelling all future voyages.
The ship had been seized on April 18, after Motor-Services Hugo Stamp, a Fort Lauderdale engine repair company, accused the cruise line of failing to pay a $730,000 bill.
Since then, other creditors have emerged, claiming they are collectively owed more than $2 million.
Regal Cruises was not represented in court Tuesday. The company's attorney, Timothy Shusta of Tampa's Phelps Dunbar, said Regal had terminated his services and he asked the court to withdraw as counsel.
Scriven, however, said Shusta could step down only when Regal finds other representation or sends notice that it has abandoned the case.
The 10 other attorneys, who appeared in court Tuesday, representing more than a dozen creditors, all agreed that Regal Empress should be sold and that the crew needed to be cared for. But they squabbled over how soon the sale should take place and how much each creditor would need to contribute to the crew's welfare.
John Tomaselli, a Fort Lauderdale attorney who represents Motor-Services, suggested the ship be sold within eight days to minimize expenses.
"The cost of keeping the ship in custody has exceeded $100,000 so far and those costs will increase substantially," Tomaselli said.
But attorneys representing other creditors in the case said the sale of the vessel should take place in 30 days in order to maximize the sale price.
As a compromise, Scriven said the ship should be sold at public auction within 15 days and a minimum price should be set. But if no one buys the ship, a second auction should be held 15 days later and the ship should be sold to the highest bidder.
Tomaselli estimated that the Regal Empress could generate as much as $1.4 million if it were sold as scrap.
"The price at auction would be north of $1.4 million, but not that far north," Tomaselli said.
As to the fate of the crew, Scriven said that all efforts needed to be made to speed their voyage home or to other jobs in the area.
Patrick E. Novak, a Miami attorney who represents National Liquidators, which is now in charge of managing the Regal Empress, estimated that it would cost about $15,000 to feed crew members for a week or two, and more than $200,000 to repatriate them.
The crew members are also owed wages of about $300,000 at the end of the month.
David McCreadie, a Tampa attorney representing Seabulk Towing, which operates tug boats, said that Motor-Services should assume most of the burden because it's the one that caused Regal to shut down. But Tomaselli countered that costs should be spread among all creditors.