2024 Maritime Digest of Arbitration Awards and Court Rulings
SPOT CHARTER – PRORATED WAITING TIME – SUSPENDED LAYTIME – DROPPED TENDER
Vessel tendered NOR whilst charterer’s berth was available and after awaiting a short period of time, went to another berth. Thereafter, charterer’s berth was occupied and vessel periodically waited for charterer’s berth and worked berths for other charterers’ accounts. Owner claimed as demurrage those periods of time whilst vessel was awaiting charterer’s berth whilst it was charterer’s position that the root cause of the overall delay in berthing was vessel’s decision to not work charterer’s berth when given the opportunity.
DETENTION – FORCE MAJEURE – DAMAGES – MITIGATION – CANCELLED C/P
When Charterer’s supplier failed to provide its cargo due to Charterer’s attempt to re-negotiate the sale, Charterer was forced to cancel its C/P with the lifting vessel’s owner. Owner then endeavored to mitigate the damages via an internal fixture amongst a rising freight market.
SHELLTIME 4 – NON-PAYMENT OF DAILY HIRE – REPUDIATORY BREACH –DAMAGES – MITIGATION OF HIRE VS DAMAGES
When charterer failed to pay hire owner considered this a repudiatory breach of the charter and claimed for this hire and also damages covering delays incurred after the breach.
BIMCO HEAVYCON 2007 – NOR VALIDITY – NON PAYMENT OF DEMURRAGE, FREIGHT, BUNKERS, PORT COSTS WAR RISKS – COVID – DETENTION – FRUSTRATION OF CHARTER PARTY – LIEN
After non payment of sums by Charterer , Owner exercised a lien on the cargo and drifted the Vessel for 272 days. Owner claimed for the non-payment plus detention whilst Vessel drifted.
ASBATANKVOY – NAMED PORT – NAMED BERTH – Q88 – FOREIGN FLAG RESTRICTION – INVALID NOR – CARGO AVAILABILITY – DEADFREIGHT – DEMURRAGE – ADDRESS COMMISSION
When Charterer was either unable to provide a cargo or Vessel was not allowed admittance to the load port due to its flag, Owner cancelled the charter party and claimed for deadfreight and demurrage. It was also noted that the Vessel may have tendered a premature NOR from just outside the load port.
BEIZAI 1991 – EQUIPMENT FAILURE – UNION SAFETY INSPECTION FAILURE – DEMURRAGE – DAMAGES
When the crane sheaves on the vessel failed the longshoremen’s inspection, time was lost when attempting to resolve the issue with the Owner ultimately choosing to have the sheaves machined. Owner claimed demurrage and the cost of the machining from Charterer.
TIME CHARTER – FUEL CONSUMPTION – REPUDIATORY BREACH
When the Vessel over consumed bunkers during a voyage, Charterer claimed Owner to be in repudiatory breach of the charter party.
CHARTERPARTY – ADDITIONAL FREIGHT – DEMURRAGE – LAYTIME – PREMATURE – NOTICE OF READINESS – DELAYS IN CARGO OPERATIONS – SLOW DISCHARGE – “ONCE ON DEMURRAGE, ALWAYS ON DEMURRAGE”
The discharge port for a ship carrying logs was changed after a mutual agreement between the shipowner and charterers. Charges were filed against the charterer for lost time which charterer partially contested basis an alleged premature NOR. The court that oversaw this case awarded the shipowner financial compensation based off of a reduced time that the court saw as fair.
OWNER/CHARTERER – POTENTIAL FORCE MAJEURE – CARGO NOT SUPPLIED – OWNER TERMINATED CHARTER – OWNER CLAIMED BREACH AND REPUDIATION – OWNER AWARD
After awaiting Charterer’s cargo for ~2+ months and not receiving a satisfactory answer as to when it would be provided, Owner terminated the Charter, claiming that the Charterer was in breach and repudiation of the agreement. The Owner then brought a case to arbitration, once the Charterer did not respond to the claims that were submitted to them regarding the incident.
NYPE FORM – INTER-CLUB NYPE AGREEMENT (ICA) – CARGO CLAIM – TIME BAR
The tribunal was left to decide if proper notification of an impending cargo claim had been made to meet the requirements of the time bar clause.
