2025 Maritime Digest of Arbitration Awards and Court Rulings
NYPE -- TIME CHARTER -- SPEED AND PERFORMANCE -- BOTTOM FOULING -- RISK UNDER DIRECT CONTINUATION -- STEVEDORE DAMAGE -- Partial Owner Award
Under the first trip charter the Vessel was forced to remain at the loadport anchorage for 48 days before sailing to the discharge port. Due to the extended delay, the high temperature waters caused bottom fouling that impacted her performance under two separate charters that were in direct continuation. At issue is whether the Owner breached the performance warranty under both trip charters and who is responsible for the hull cleaning costs.
TIME CHARTER -- INJURIOUS CARGO DEFINED -- DEBRIS IN PUMPS AND TANKS -- Charterer Award
Under a time charter contract, the Vessel loaded a cargo of LNG for the Charterer’s account. After the operation, it was reported that debris could have been introduced into the cargo tanks, however nothing was noticeably wrong at the time. During the course of the following voyages, intermittent problems accumulated until the Vessel had to undergo extensive repairs. Owner blamed the Charterer’s cargo and filed a damages claim to recover their losses.
EBOLA VIRUS . . . Ebola has caused more than 3,300 deaths in west Africa, predominantly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and more recently in Nigeria. This pandemic impacts shipping contracts and as well as individual Port State Control (PSC) guidelines for vessels arriving from Ebola infected countries. In general, PSC checks a vessel’s last 10 ports of call and grants approval for disembarkation of crew and guards provided 21 days have elapsed since the Vessel’s call to an affected country. Vessels that have confirmed cases of ebola on board are placed in quarantine. Contracts treat this delay differently based on the...
CONTAINER DEMURRAGE -- DOCTRINE OF LACHES -- STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS -- DELAYED PROCEEDINGS -- INTEREST CALCULATION -- Plaintiff Award
The Claimant’s container sat at the discharge port for a period of 4 years. During that time they issued 13 demurrage claims contemporaneously to the Cargo Merchant for the container’s running delay. However, the Defendant never paid, so once the container was returned by Customs, the Claimant brought admiralty action against the Defendant to recover those outstanding funds. As this was several years after the voyage (and a number of these claims), the Merchant argued that these claims were barred by laches.
NYPE -- GROUNDING -- SAFE PORT WARRANTY -- GOOD NAVIGATION AND SEAMANSHIP -- OFF HIRE -- REPAIR COSTS -- Charterer Award
The Vessel grounded on an uncharted reef on her approach to the discharge port, Makassar, Indonesia, causing hull damage, loss of time, additional bunker consumption and other related expenses. At issue is whether Charterer breached the safe port warranty or whether Owner failed in exercising good navigation and seamanship.
NYPE -- TIME CHARTER -- ANTICIPATORY BREACH – EARLY REDELIVERY – DAMAGES -- PROFIT FROM SALE OF VESSEL -- CAUSATION -- Owner Award
Under a time charter contract, Charterer redelivered the Vessel to the Owner two years early. In doing so, Owner considered Charterer in anticipatory repudiatory breach of the contract and filed for damages. Charterer, however, pointed out that the early redelivery allowed Owner to sell the Vessel at a much higher price before the market collapsed. They argued that this windfall should be factored into the Owner’s damages claim.
NYPE -- TIME CHARTER -- PERFORMANCE WARRANTY -- SPEED AND CONSUMPTION -- GOOD WEATHER CRITERIA -- BREACH OF CHARTER -- CONTRACT LANGUAGE -- Owner Award
During a winter voyage the Vessel allegedly underperformed and Charterer subsequently argued that the Owner was in breach of the speed and consumption warranties. Owner countered that the Vessel’s performance warranty was not absolute, but instead, was only applicable during periods of good weather.
AMERICANIZED WESLSH COAL CHARTERPARTY -- FAILURE TO PROVIDE CARGO -- DEMURRAGE -- LOST PROFITS -- Partial Owner Award
Despite Charterer’s ongoing promise to supply cargo, after waiting 95 days, the Owner canceled the contract. Demurrage was awarded up to the time of contract cancellation, however, Owner’s claim for lost profits did not succeed owing to a lack of supporting evidence.
Detention accrues when a ship is delayed outside of the scope of laytime and demurrage, which is directly attributable to fault of the Charterer. Some examples of Charterer’s fault includes failure to have cargo ready when the Vessel arrives within laydays, failure to give voyage orders, delay in paying freight causing Owner to impose a cargo lien, and unreasonable departure delays in releasing the Vessel after laytime ceases to run.
In order to remain abreast of the maritime world, Haugen Consulting reviews the pertinent shipping news articles from around the globe and summarizes them for the busy industry member…in brief. ESHIPS BOUGHT BY OLDENDORFF…The UAE-based tanker and drybulk shipowner and operator has been purchased by Germany’s Egon Oldendorff in a move to bolster their Middle East operations. Although not fully realized, Oldendorff will take control of their business with the goal of generating “long term dry bulk freight contracts” with clients. STOLT TANKERS PROFITS DOWN…Stolt-Nielsen (SNI) reported a net profit of only $30.8 million for this quarter after last...
