On the afternoon of March18, 2020, a lawyer in Guangzhou contacted Zhuhai court of GZMC, claiming  since his Hong Kong client’s Hong Kong-Macao floating ship sank after a collision, he was entrusted to apply for the arrest of a ship prior to litigation to realize maritime liens,  in which circumstance he need to sign the power of attorney face to face at the court. To protect the legitimate right of the  applicant, after reviewing materials and verifying the entry quarantine status of the applicant, the court agreed they come over and sign the power of attorney. Later the applicant claimed he traveled from Hong Kong to Zhuhai in a floating boat and did not touch any suspected or confirmed covid-19 patients. For he did not carry out the epidemic prevention test in the relevant domestic agencies, after negotiated with the community guards, two court officials witnessed the signature of the letter of attorney outside of the community in the rain. They wear masks and keep a proper distance with the visitors and washed hands and disinfected themselves after back to office.

In the afternoon of the next day, two court officials went to Xinhui district of Jiangmen city to seize ship in rainy weather. In order to minimize the impact of covid-19 on embarkation, Zhuhai court contacted Xinhui office of Jiangmen Maritime Safety Administration several times and jointly made boarding plan ahead. The two court officials took precautions carefully and read the relevant legal and litigation guidance to the captain after inspecting the ship and registering the epidemic prevention of the crews. From the initial worry and resistance, the captain finally dispelled his misgivings and signed the ship detained document. Without a stop, they drove to send the document to Jiangmen Maritime Safety Administration, they successfully finished the task with a high efficiency.

After the war of anti-coronavirus, Zhuhai court has been keeping alert, working hard to make trial without delay and epidemic prevention in control. As the first time to seizure ship after the outbreak of covid-19, CMZC responded to ship arrest application quickly to protect the applicant’s legitimate interests, which had been highly praised by the Hong Kong applicant.