2024 Maritime Digest of Arbitration Awards and Court Rulings
ASBATANKVOY -- LAYTIME -- CARGO -- CHARTER PARTY -- STOWAGE -- LAYCAN -- DEADFREIGHT -- WRONGFUL CANCELLATION -- Owner Award
During laytime, and after the Charterer’s cargo was partially loaded, the Charterer altered the agreed amount of cargo as specified by the Charter Party, thereby incurring stowage delays and confusion in the loading plan. After these delays extended loadtime past laycan, the Charterer cancelled the voyage and refused responsibility for the resulting deadfreight claiming that the delays resulted from the Vessel’s unreadiness to load.
ASBATANKVOY -- BARGE -- LOADPORT -- DEMURRAGE -- TERMINAL -- ARBITRATION -- ACT OF GOD -- DETENTION -- MITIGATE -- LATE CARGO -- BERTHING DELAY -- Owner Award
After an initial barge loading failure at the original loadport, the Owner mitigated the Charterer’s demurrage and fixed the new loadport as the Owner’s terminal. The Vessel tendered NOR at the terminal, but was forced to wait three days for the Charterer’s barges to arrive because of rough seas and lock delays. The subsequent demurrage claim for the three day delay was refuted in arbitration by the Charterers on the grounds that the weather and lock detentions were out of their control, and therefore exempt from demurrage.
Recently introduced, EXXONMOBILVOY 2005 (EMV2005) contains a slight reduction in requirements and a subtle change in semantics as compared to its predecessor, EXXONMOBILVOY 2000 (EMV2000). EMV2000, itself a limited update of EXXONVOY 90, was the product of the merger of Exxon and Mobil and published on 1 June 2000. The below provides a brief summary of the differences EMV2005’s laytime / demurrage clauses have as compared to EMV2000’s laytime / demurrage clauses.
ASBATANKVOY -- SHIP-TO-SHIP -- DEMURRAGE -- ARBITRATION -- LOADPORT -- STS TRANSFER – WHETHER NOR WAS TENDERED -- VALIDITY OF NOR -- Charterer Award
This case began with Charterer allegations that the Vessel did not tender NOR for this STS transfer—or if it did, it was invalid and premature. The Owner, however, counterclaimed that when the Charterer remitted partial payment of the demurrage claim, they thereby admitted validity to the Vessel’s NOR and sacrificed their right to challenge it.
GENCON -- BERTH -- DEMURRAGE -- LAYTIME -- ARBITRATION -- VESSEL DEFICIENCIES – VALIDITY OF NOR -- Owner Award
When the Charterer’s pilot boarded the Vessel to begin berthing six days after NOR declaration, the pilot noted operational deficiencies and refused to berth the Vessel until repaired. The Owner subsequently filed for demurrage beginning at NOR tender while the Charterer argued that NOR cannot be considered a valid beginning of laytime because of Vessel unreadiness at berthing.
GENCON 76 -- BERTH -- CANAL -- WEATHER -- ACT OF GOD -- LOADPORT -- DEMURRAGE -- DETENTION -- Owner Award
After loading was completed, a latent document delivery to the Vessel detained it at berth for an extra 14.5H. The Charterer did not contest His/Her fault in the delay, however, He/She argues that the canal was concurrently closed due to adverse weather for several days and the time spent at berth during this closure should be deducted from the claim.
ASBATANKVOY -- CHARTER PARTY -- DEMURRAGE -- TERMINAL LOGS -- TIME-BAR -- Charterer Award
This case’s Charter Party clearly stipulates that there are no grounds for demurrage unless the claim (along with supporting documentation) is received within ninety days of cargo discharge. So when the Owner submitted a claim on the ninetieth day without the specifically outlined terminal logs, the Charterer deemed the demurrage time-barred by the Charter Party.
ASBATANKVOY -- LOADPORT -- CHARTER PARTY -- BERTH -- CARGO -- DEMURRAGE -- ARBITRATION -- TANK CLEANLINESS -- Charterer Award
Upon arriving at loadport after a new cargo revision in the Charter Party, the Vessel was kicked off of berth because of survey results revealing that the Vessel’s tanks were insufficiently cleaned for the revised cargo. The Owner submitted demurrage for the cleaning costs and delays arguing that the tanks were acceptable for the original cargo.
PORT AUTHORITY -- BERTH -- DEMURRAGE -- DETENTION -- BERTH CLOSURE -- Owner Award
After repeatedly delaying its ETA, the Vessel ultimately arrived, but the port authority had closed the berth for scheduled maintenance. In response to the subsequent Owner demurrage claim, the Charterer counterclaimed that neither the maintenance nor the delays leading to the prolonged ETA were in His/Her control.
With hurricanes Katrina and Rita recently hitting the U.S. Gulf, Charterers and Owners have found their vessels incurring lengthy waits. Since Asbatankvoy remains the most popular bulk liquids boilerplate and it incorporates the term storm in its Clause 8 half-time provision, the below defines the term storm under both English and U.S. law.
