2024 Maritime Digest of Arbitration Awards and Court Rulings
NYPE TIME CHARTER - LATE PAYMENT AND NON-PAYMENT OF HIRE - WHETHER LATE PAYMENT A REPUDIATORY BREACH - CALCULATION OF DAMAGES - Owner Award
The charterer acknowledged its late payments of hire were a breach of the charterparty yet denied that the late payments were a repudiatory breach. In contrast, and despite charterer offering payment proposals, the owner contended charterer’s conduct constituted non-payment rather than late payment and was thus a repudiation of the charter party.
PAYMENT FOR BUNKERS DELAYED - INTEREST ACCRUES AND IS ITSELF NOT PAID
When bunkers were not paid for in a timely manner, interest accrued per seller’s terms. And although the vessel owner eventually paid for the bunkers, the interest remained outstanding.
ASBATANKVOY – PORT CHARTER VERSUS BERTH CHARTER – DELIVERED SALE
SHELLTIME 4 – VESSEL DETAINED FOR INVALID AUTHORIZATION FORM – OFF HIRE – OWNER DISAGREES CITING CONTRACT TERMS – Owner Award
Whilst in a Venezuelan port the vessel was detained after an invalid authorization form was discovered by the Port Authorities. The charterer claimed the vessel was off-hire during the detention. The owner disagreed and commenced arbitration.
TIME CHARTER - WHEN SECURING DEMURRAGE FROM RECEIVER, VESSEL WAS ACCIDENTALLY ARRESTED BY SUB-CHARTERER - WHETHER SUB-CHARTERER OR RECEIVER ARE CONSIDERED “AGENTS” OF TIME CHARTERER - WHETHER VESSEL OFF-HIRE
In order to secure demurrage from its buyer, seller, who was also a sub-charterer, obtained an arrest order on the cargo. In doing so, the Vessel was also erroneously named as an object of the arrest. During the period of the arrest of the Vessel, the time charterer withheld hire basis a clause in the charter party. Owner refuted same given that per the clause if arrest is caused by “agents” of the time charterer then the vessel is not off hire. Per owner, the time charterer’s sub-charterer and sub-charterer’s buyer were “agents” of the time charterer.
PORT VS. BERTH CHARTER - RIVER PORT - WHEN VESSEL CONSIDERED ARRIVED - COAST GUARD RESTRICTING TRAFFIC - COLLISION - DEMURRAGE - LAYTIME
Upon arrival in Argentina the vessel could not proceed to charterer’s port due to wreckage salvage operations taking place on the Paraná River. Owner started counting laytime basis a notice of readiness tendered outside the commercial confines of charterer’s port; the sole disport named in the fixture. Contending that the charter party was a berth charter, Charterer disputed the time at which the vessel was to be considered an arrived ship.
ASBATANKVOY - ADVERSE WEATHER OR NIGHTTIME TRANSIT RESTRICTION – DEMURRAGE CLAIM SHORT PAID WITHOUT OWNER’S AGREEMENT - Owner Award
Charterer and owner disagreed as to whether the root cause of a delay was a nighttime transit restriction or weather related subsequently warranting a 100% or 50% deduction respectfully. Charterer ended up short paying the owner’s claim and considering the case closed. The owner brought arbitration for the remainder.
TIME CHARTER – OWNER CLAIMING BALANCE OF HIRE – CHARTERER WITHHOLDING HIRE BASIS OFF-HIRE AND EQUITABLE SET-OFF – DATE OF ACCRUAL OF OWNER’S CLAIMS – WHETHER OWNER’S CLAIMS TIME-BARRED UNDER LIMITATION ACT Near the end of a time charter hire payments were withheld by Charterer to offset various claims against Owner. Just shy of 6 years after redelivery, arbitration was commenced against Charterer who contended the claim should be time-barred basis the date of accrual for each missed hire payment. The issues in dispute arose under a time charter of the NYPE form. Clause 5, in relevant part below, provided:...
As of 21 March 2016, BP Shipping Ltd. has released BPVOY5; the long-awaited successor to the 1998 BPVOY4 charter party. There have been quite a few changes made to the 18-year-old boilerplate. Most of these changes, however, are essentially updates to outdated language and none seem to be especially onerous. Here are a few that stuck out to us (both inside demurrage and out).
ARBITRATION – COUNTERCLAIM SUBMITTED AS DEFENSE DURING ARBITRATION – QUESTION AS TO WHETHER COUNTERCLAIM TIME BARRED – Charterer Award
Four contracts were negotiated between two parties regarding the charter of floating cranes. Later, the owner brought an arbitration case in an attempt to recover detention. With its defense at the arbitration, the charterer counterclaimed for demurrage. The arbitration panel found that the charterer’s counterclaim was time-barred. The charterer appealed.
