JUDGMENT

Nallini Pathmanathan FCJ:

Introduction

[1] The issue before the Federal Court concerns the number of times an admiralty writ in rem may be renewed. In this jurisdiction, the renewal of a writ is governed by O 6 r 7 of the Rules of Court 2012 ('the Rules'). More particularly, O 6 r 7(2) of the Rules expressly provides that the validity of a writ in an admiralty action may be extended five times where efforts to serve the writ on a defendant have been unsuccessful.

[2] The instant appeal turns on whether the court may exercise its inherent powers to renew a writ in rem beyond the fifth time to prevent injustice to a plaintiff where the service of the writ is an impossibility. Both the courts below were of the view that they could not override the express terms of O 6 r 7(2) of the Rules to renew a writ in rem for the sixth time even in a situation where the writ could not be served through no fault of the plaintiff.