A Pappadakis family company has filed a lawsuit against the US government in a case that adopts a new tack in testing the limits of the US Coast Guard (USCG)’s powers to hold ships on suspicion of pollution violations under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (Marpol).

Angelex, the Kassian Maritime Navigation Agency affiliate that owns the 73,500-dwt Electronica (built 1995), filed the case in the US federal court in Washington DC seeking $4.18m