The international law firm DLA Piper has successfully advised Maha Vajiralongkorn, the Crown Prince of Thailand, in a dispute on the seizure of his aircraft before the Regional Court of Landshut (Germany). By decision of 20 July 2011, the court revoked the seizure of the Crown Prince’s Boeing 737-400, which had been carried out on the Airport of Munich on 11 July 2011, a-gainst a security of € 20 mio until the final decision. The ruling is a provisional decision on a third party action against execution which has been brought by the Cologne office of DLA Piper on behalf of the Crown Prince on 15 July 2011.
The aircraft has been seized under distress upon request of the bankruptcy trustee of Walter Bau AG, who is claiming outstanding debts of the Kingdom of Thailand. The Regional Court of Landshut sta-ted that, according to the current state of facts, the aircraft belongs to the property of the Crown Prince and may therefore not be subject to the execution of a debt of the Kingdom of Thailand. Judgement on the main issue will be given at a later time.
Dr. Frank Roth, specialist in Litigation & Arbitration of DLA Piper Cologne, who is leading the mat-ter, said: “Based on the documents and statements which we have presented to the Court, it has as-sured itself of the property rights and has drawn the necessary conclusions, immediately.”
Dr. Ludger Giesberts, Head of the German practice group Litigation & Regulatory of DLA Piper and expert in aviation law, said: “The close cooperation between our offices in Bangkok, Cologne and New York is another prove of DLA Piper’s particular ability to a fast and cross border cooperation, in which we could rely on our German team’s expertise in litigation and aviation law.”
DLA Piper is also advising the Kingdom of Thailand before the courts of New York and Berlin in re-lation to the claims of Walter Bau AG’s bankruptcy trustee.
The team of DLA Piper was comprised of the partners Dr. Ludger Giesberts (Litigation & Regulatory, Cologne), Dr. Frank Roth (Litigation & Regulatory, Cologne; both responsible for the matter); Prof. Dr. Jürgen Taschke (Litigation & Regulatory, Frankfurt), Suraphon Rittipong-chusit (Litigation & Regulatory, Bangkok) and Claudia Salomon (Litigation & Regulatory, New York) and the associates Guido Kleve (Litigation & Regulatory, Cologne), Regina Lamm (Litigation & Regulatory, Cologne), Dr. Christian Schoop (Litigation & Regulatory, Frankfurt) and Robert Tang (Litigation & Regulatory, Bangkok).
