Egypt seizes the Ever Given, saying its owners owe nearly $1 billion for Suez Canal traffic jam?

That means very little. The ship ran aground because they misrepresented their displacement weight to the Canal Authority, a very big no-no.  they did that because if they were honest, either they would have been denied access to the canal or they would have had to pay more $$$. 

Because the contract between the ships owners and the Suez canal (

essentially the Egyptian government), says you must have a pilot but anything goes wrong, the captain gets the blame.

At ALL TIMES the Captain is responsible for his ship.  And 'corporate responsibility' would apply to the financial consequences of his actions.

Possession is 9/10ths of the law. This will be one for the insurers and their lawyers to sort out.

Because the pilot is not the owner.

It’s potentially a very complicated international legal fight. 

“This is a complicated topic considering the captain is Indian, the canal pilots are Egyptian, the owners and shipbuilders are Japanese, the operator is German, the insurance company is British, the charterer is Taiwanese, the cargo is Chinese, the salvors are Dutch, the ship is Panamanian, and the all-important classification society is American.”

I think only the lawyers will win in this one.