Page 28: of Marine News Magazine (December 2019)

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COLUMN LEGAL

Beware of the Nominal Entity

Make Sure That You Know Who You Are Really Contracting With.

By Larry DeMarcay

A famous U.S. politician once in- entity does not automatically provide you with a guarantee sisted that “it takes a village to raise a from the parent company. child.” That said; any marine operator We often see situations where a party contracts with a will tell you that it takes an even larger “nominal entity” that is related to a larger company. Un- village and a ridiculous number of con- fortunately, if the relationship falls apart, the company that tracts to operate a vessel, and even more contracted with the nominal entity often