Didn't they read their contracts when the ship was acquired?
zace66 said:
Does the bank/corp own the ship and the payments go to them so no recourse?
A bank or corporation or individual could own the ship and have a contract allowing other parties to rent, lease, or utilize the ship via some other means. For a typical mortgage, IMO, the contract should state who the owner(s) are and the mortgage company does not own the ship unless they foreclose on it. Ownership typically would not be changed without the mortgage contract being satisfied. The mortgage company could approve of the new owner(s) and write up a new contract.
zace66 said:
Does the player all equally own the ship so each one is still liable?
Lets break something down. As in all discussions about this topic, I'll refer you to page 36 and state emphatically that SHIP SHARES ARE NOT ACTUAL SHARES LIKE SHARES IN A CORPORATION
Ship shares also include those acquired as a discount because of the ships age.
Judge for yourself if contacts, credit rating, savings, and favors can be used toward helping some other person(s) purchase and own a ship or if it is only available if the person 'cashing in' on their ship shares is one of the owners.
IMO, credit rating couldn't go towards someone else unless you 'co-sign'. In this case, you would not have any ownership but you would be responsible for the debt if the owner defaults.
Savings could definitely be given away to someone else. I'm personally not so generous with my money.
You could call in a favor or ask an old contact to help someone else acquire a ship. I probably wouldn't do this unless it was for someone I knew very well and I didn't think I'd need this for my own benefit some day.
Overall, I believe ship shares can be used to contribute towards the purchase of a ship without the person who possess the shares needing to be an owner of the ship. Perhaps there is an agreement that they will get a 5 year contract for employment as crew, perhaps they are allowed free passage and a certain amount of cargo space, perhaps they are just helping out a good friend who saved their life once.
So, it all comes down to what is in the original contract to determine who is the owner and who has liability.
zace66 said:
Can the share be sold to another party?
'ship shares' as described in the book, can not be 'traded' for cash. See page 36. 'Ship shares' as described in the book, are used to reduce the cost of a ship. They are 'spent' and no longer exist once the ship is acquired and the discount is used.
You could form a corporation and give out shares. These are not 'ship shares'. The corporation may only own one asset, a ship but they are still shares in XYZ corporation. The corporation could decide to trade the ship for a factory and you would still own shares in XYZ corporation, not the ship.
Shares could be sold and financing contracts for assets owned by the corporation would probably not need to be renegotiated.
Maybe it is a partnership. The partnership agreement/contract may stipulate that there is 'survivorship' and if one party dies their portion goes to the other partners and not their heirs. For selling, the other partners may get the right to buy out their partner before they sell to a third party first and they may have the ability to approve or reject who the new partner is. I don't know for sure how changes in a partnership would effect previously established financing contracts. Partially it depends on if the individuals had to sign or co-sign (often this is the case) or if the financing was established in the name of the partnership.
I'm just a layman whose only experience is researching some of this when I was setting up my own business. Things could be different from state to state and definitely from country to country (let alone subsector to subsector!). My current opinions could be wrong since they are only based on limited knowledge. The way things work in the far future may not necessarily be the same as the way things work now or in the past.
Hope this was of some help though.
