Vangie White, her husband and 12-year-old son sleep on the floor of their Kailua home and use an empty television box as a desk.

It's not that the Whites don't have furniture. A shipping container with virtually all their household belongings — from beds and chairs to pots and pans — arrived here from the Philippines on Aug. 23. But their shipment has been stuck in Honolulu Harbor aboard the Micronesian Navigator, a cargo ship. The vessel was seized in a $300,000 financial dispute between the shipping company and a stevedore company.

"The container we have is the whole household," said White, 44, who moved here in July with her family. "Here these people are talking about a lot of money, but we just want our household things. ... I don't know the legality of all this, but we are just a family who is waiting for our shipment."

White is one of several individuals and businesses whose goods are caught in the middle of a payment dispute between the Philippines, Micronesia and Orient Navigation Co. (PM&O Line) and stevedoring firm McCabe, Hamilton and Renny Co. Ltd. The vessel has about 100 20-foot containers that need to be unloaded, PM&O said.

Steven Kop, owner of Aloha Hula Supply, also has been waiting for his shipment of 5,000 Tahitian skirts and other Polynesian products to sell at his shop in Kalihi.

"I have to bring them up by air until (the supplier) can ready another container for me, which is not going by PM&O," he said.

The problems with PM&O are unusual but are a reminder of how dependent Hawai'i is on shipping companies. About 80 percent of all goods sold in these Islands arrive by ship. Matson Navigation Co. and Horizon Lines are the state's two main shipping companies, but it's unlikely that what is happening to PM&O would happen to them.

"Matson has been serving Hawai'i since 1882. We are recognized as a financially stable company, as is our parent company, Alexander & Baldwin, and this is not an issue that Hawai'i's consumers need to be concerned about when it comes to shipping with Matson," said Matson spokesman Jeff Hull.

PM&O, which operates between the West Coast, the Central Pacific and Asia, makes monthly shipments to Honolulu. The company was founded in 1978, is headquartered in San Francisco and operates two ships.

The U.S. Marshals Service seized PM&O's Micronesian Navigator the day it arrived in Honolulu Harbor. McCabe claimed in a federal court complaint that PM&O, which charters the ship, owes it $302,692 for stevedoring services from December to August.

Following McCabe's charges, two complaints on behalf of West Coast companies were filed against PM&O, claiming that the shipping company still owes them money for stevedoring, terminal and other services already provided. The amount these Mainland companies are seeking for services to the Micronesian Navigator totals about $642,000.

PM&O Line president Robert Colson disputes the claims. He said PM&O owes McCabe only $127,000 and is willing to pay it.

"I want it to end as soon as it possibly can and come to reasonable terms," Colson said. "Are we hardheaded? No, not really. But somewhere along the line, you have to stand up and say, 'Hey, we don't think this is right.' "

For people who have goods aboard the ship, there's little they can do until PM&O and McCabe settle their dispute.

"The human-interest story is those poor people, whose goods and belongings are stuck on this ship ... are screwed," said Ho-nolulu maritime lawyer Jay Friedheim.

McCabe president Tim Guard said his workers will not unload the ship unless the company is paid in advance.

And because the ship has been seized, the federal court requires anyone going aboard — including longshoremen — to sign a liability waiver. Guard said the company has not asked workers to sign the waiver.

"The workers are not going to go aboard the vessel and waive their rights in the event that they're injured because of failure of the ship's gear or something like that," Guard said. "It's perfectly understandable why they would not want to waive that right."

McCabe executive vice president Kraig Kennedy added, "We can't get aboard to unload the ship at this point. And we have looked at all of the alternatives to try to figure out if there's any way around that requirement of signing the waiver, and there isn't, not any that make any sense, anyway. So that option has not panned out at all."

Both Guard and Kennedy said that seizing the ship was done as a last resort to collect money that was owed, and that they hope the situation gets resolved as soon as possible.

"I've got a couple of small-business people who keep calling me, because for small businesses, one container of goods is a significant piece of their business," Kennedy said. "This process is hurting them, and we don't like to be a part of that."

A shipping line and a stevedore company are having a beef, and because of it, Hawai'i families and businesses are suffering

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.