2024 Maritime Digest of Arbitration Awards and Court Rulings
BPVOY4 -- DEMURRAGE -- TIME-BAR -- DOCUMENTS SUBMITTED TIMELY BUT CLAIM MISLABELED AS DEVIATION -- COST OF BUNKERS FOR CALLING SAME BERTH TWICE -- Partial Owner Award
This award is Owner’s appeal of the Commercial Court’s 22 Nov 10 decision. When Vessel was required by Charterer to attend to the same load berth twice, Owner invoiced the time and bunkers consumed for the second call as a deviation claim. In addition, demurrage was claimed by Owner for excess time used at the discharge port. Charterer agreed to and paid a "final agreed demurrage invoice" which covered demurrage and then claimed that the load port expenses should have been submitted as demurrage. Owner subsequently altered the load port claim such that it was for demurrage with Charterer subsequently denying it twofold; firstly, demurrage had already been settled in full and secondly, the claim for demurrage at the load port was now time-barred.
ASBATANKVOY -- DEMURRAGE -- WORKING OTHER CARGOES -- TANK CLEANING -- Charterer Award
In the appeal to the High Court the judge agreed with the arbitrators that if the vessel was unavailable to the charterers for their cargo operations because she was being used by the owners for their own purposes, the owners were deriving a benefit even if the vessel was still waiting for a berth.
NYPE -- TIME-CHARTER -- SPEED AND CONSUMPTION WARRANTY -- BEAUFORT SCALE -- BAD WEATHER -- EQUITABLE SET-OFF -- OFF-HIRE -- Charterer Award
At the commencement of the time charter the Vessel had problems with the main engine sea water cooling system which Charterer suspected subsequently caused the Vessel to underperform. Owner denied that the Vessel breached the performance warranty and claims for the withheld hire; whereas, Charterer maintains that the Vessel was off-hire or, alternatively, seeks damages for Owner’s breach of the speed warranty as an equitable set-off.
CHARTERPARTY BREACH -- OIL COMPANIES APPROVALS CLAUSE -- CLASS CONDITION IMPOSITION -- Charterer Award
At the time of the fixture, Owner alleged that the Vessel was approved by five oil majors. Thus, when Charterer’s buyer rejected the Vessel due to a sea-chest valve needing repairs as imposed by the Class survey, a sale was lost with Charterer incurring substantial damages. In deciding whether the Owner breached the Oil Companies Approval Clause, the Court clarified the meaning of the acronym "TBOOK" and the word "approved".
SHELLVOY 5 -- ERRONEOUS PARTY NAMED IN CHARTER -- WHETHER CONTRACT BINDING BY PERFORMANCE -- ARBITRATION JURISDICTION -- Owner Award
The fixture recap erroneously listed TTMI’s parent company, Sempra Energy, as the time chartered Owner rather than TTMI. Thus, when TTMI claimed demurrage, Charterer denied that a contract with TTMI existed and alternatively, if a contract was deemed to have been created by performance, that the terms would not be as set forth in the fixture recap.
AMWELSH -- BERTHING DELAYS CAUSED BY STRIKE -- WHETHER IN BERTH OR NOT -- WIBON PHRASE RELATIVE TO A STRIKE CLAUSE -- Charterer Award
Under the same Contract of Affreightment (COA), two vessels arrived at port in the midst of a haulage strike and two vessels arrived after the haulage strike ended. All four of these vessels experienced berthing delays as a result of port congestion attributable to the strike. At issue is whether the WIBON clause supersedes the strike clause regarding berthing delays.
AMWELSH -- DEMURRAGE RESULTING FROM INSUFFICIENT WATER LEVELS -- ALWAYS AFLOAT, ALWAYS ACCESSIBLE -- SHORT LOADING -- Full Owner Award
Owner claimed time ran during a period when the Vessel was required to temporarily vacate the berth during loading due to insufficient water levels as the fixture warranted Vessel to load "always afloat". Charterer counterclaimed for short loading when the Vessel departed with less than the warranted “max 21,400 MT in chrts option…”
NYPE 93 -- DEFICIENT SPEED -- BUNKER VALUATION -- EARLY REDELIVERY -- PREMIUM HIRE -- OFF-HIRE -- BANK CHARGES -- Partial Owner Award
This arbitration resolved a number of different disputes under a time charter. These included the calculation of the deduction for a speed deficiency, Charterer proactively deducting from hire the speed deficiency rather than claiming from Owner as stipulated by the Charter Party, early redelivery and the valuation of bunkers on redelivery, an alleged shortage of IFO during the time charter period, whether Charterer was to pay a premium whilst the Vessel cleaned the holds after the cargo requiring a premium had been discharged, off-hire calculations whilst the Vessel had a crane breakdown yet wherein no loss of time was encountered, excessive address commission being deducted from "hire" paid when redelivering early and finally, insufficient payment by Charterer as a result of “nominal” Bank Charges.
ASBATANKVOY -- WRONGFUL CANCELLATION OF CHARTER PARTY -- PROCEED WITH UTMOST DISPATCH -- ETAs -- CONTRIBUTORY BREACH AND EQUITABLE REMEDY -- Partial Owner Award
With a two port load option, San Francisco or Los Angeles, and a strict laycan to lift cargo prior to year-end (to avoid shoreside inventory taxes), Vessel initially commenced sailing in an indirect direction. Eventually, en-route to the U.S. West Coast Charterer nominated SF as the load port only to have the Vessel’s ETA begin slipping. Fearing a late arrival and the loss of the FOB purchased cargo, Charterer directed the Vessel to LA. Given that the intended load port had been changed it becomes apparent that the laycan will be missed whereas, weather permitting, she would have made the laycan had the load port remained SF. Charterer canceled the Charter and Owner subsequently claimed for damages basis an alleged wrongful cancellation.
ASBATANKVOY -- JURISDICTION -- DEVIATION EXPENSE -- FAILURE TO ACCEPT FULL CARGO -- DEMURRAGE -- TIME BAR -- Charterer Award
Charterer paid lump sum freight on the mother vessel basis a full cargo of 66K MT. When mother vessel could only load 63K MT, daughter vessel incurred deviation expenses when she had to return to Singapore to discharge the balance of the cargo. At arbitration, Owner questioned jurisdiction claiming Charterer failed to properly inform them of the arbitration, Charterer claimed costs of the deviation and Owner claimed demurrage which charterer claimed was time barred.
