2024 Maritime Digest of Arbitration Awards and Court Rulings
SHELLTIME 3 -- TIME CHARTER -- OFF-HIRE -- TANKS -- Owner Award
Throughout the life of the time charter, the Vessel was declared off-hire on numerous occasions for tank wall cleaning purposes. And at the end of the contract, the Charterers billed the Owners for the entirety of the time spent off-hire plus the cost of the tank cleaning chemicals.
TEXACOVOY 94 -- LOADPORT -- MANIFOLD -- SALES AGREEMENT -- CANCELLATION -- ARBITRATION -- Seller Award
The Vessel had been nominated by the Buyer and subsequently accepted by the Seller. But upon arrival to loadport, the placement of the Vessel’s manifolds made loading impossible and the Vessel was summarily rejected by the Seller. The Buyer claimed that the Seller breached the sales agreement by not rejecting the Vessel in a timely matter and began arbitration to recover cancellation expenses.
ASBATANKVOY -- DEMURRAGE -- INTEREST -- ARBITRATION -- Owner Award
The Charterers agreed to the Owners’ demurrage invoice; however, they failed to deliver payment over the course of several months. The Owners began arbitration to collect demurrage plus interest.
CARGO -- SAMPLE -- RECONDITIONING -- ARBITRATION -- Owner Award
After sampling the cargo and finding it off spec, the Receiver’s insurance company demanded that the Owner pay for cargo reconditioning. The Owner argued that, upon delivery, the cargo was more pure than the Receiver’s average stock and counterclaimed for punitive cleaning damages.
ASBATANKVOY -- DISPORT -- BUNKER -- DEMURRAGE -- Partial Owner Award
Because of the falling market prices for oil, the Charterer ordered the Vessel to proceed directly to disport after loading and to exercise a "high speed" option that would make her minimum speed 15 knots. However, without a clear discharge program, the Owner decided to divert the Vessel in order to re-stock bunkers. And when billed for the subsequent demurrage and high speed premium, the Charterers refused to pay and counterclaimed for lost profits from a delayed delivery.
ASBATANKVOY -- LAYCAN -- LOADPORT -- PART CARGO -- LOI -- BILL OF LADING -- Charterer Award
The Vessel missed her laycan at loadport, but due to the Owners’ misrepresented ETA for the last layday, the Charterers were not aware of any possible delay until after the cancellation date. And further delays were introduced after part cargo storage confusion and the resulting Charterers’ refusal to deliver an LOI until new Bills of Lading were written to fix the confusion. Likewise, the Owners refused to unload until the time spent waiting for LOI was compensated.
ASBATANKVOY -- PART CARGO -- TANKERMEN -- BARGE -- CARGO -- TERMINAL -- PIPELINE -- ARBITRATION -- CONTAMINATION -- Charterer Award
The Vessel was to be loaded with three separate part cargoes, however the tankermen failed to switch the barge tanks in time to accommodate the cargo changeover in the terminal’s pipeline. The Owner began arbitration to recover damages from the resulting cargo mixing and contamination.
ASBA II -- PORT -- AGENT -- BERTH -- TERMINAL -- DEMURRAGE -- Charterer Award
The Vessel was notified by her agents that she would likely be able to berth upon arrival; however, the terminal unexpectedly berthed another vessel out of turn and forced the Vessel to wait an additional 30H for a free berth. When the Owners billed this as demurrage, the Charterers argued that they were not responsible for the terminal’s mix-up and define this situation as "beyond their control."
ASBATANKVOY -- LOADPORT -- TERMINAL -- BERTH -- CHANNEL -- GROUNDING -- DEADFREIGHT -- PORT -- NOR -- Charterer Award
After the Owners’ rejection of the original loadport terminal, the berth was moved to Paktank Richmond at the Owners’ request. However, the Vessel grounded in the berth’s channel due to an incorrect draft publication. The Owners argued that the Charterers did not provide a safe berth for the Vessel and demanded deadfreight compensation, while the Charterers maintained that the Owners nominated the new port and are therefore responsible for any problems resulting from the change.
ASBATANKVOY -- CHARTER PARTY -- ARBITRATION -- CANCELLATION -- Owner Award
The Owners had conceded that they wrongfully cancelled the charter, but arbitration was necessary to appropriate the amount of damages due the Charterers.
