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William Bibby

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Will is an associate in the Financial Industry Group. He joined Reed Smith in February 2015 as a trainee and qualified into the Structured Finance team in February 2017. During his training contract Will sat in Structured Finance, Energy and Natural Resources, Corporate and Shipping. Prior to joining Reed Smith Will was a paralegal at Wells Fargo Bank, N. A., London Branch.

Mitigation and the assessment of damages on early redelivery – “The New Flamenco”[1]

Assessing the level of damages recoverable following the early redelivery of a vessel under a time charter can be a complex area of law to navigate, especially when there is no available market at the date of the termination of the charter. This Blog looks at the impact on owners and charterers of the decision in The New Flamenco[2].

The facts

On 13 February 2004, The New Flamenco was time chartered by the Claimant Owners to the Defendant Charterers. In August 2005, the charterparty was extended to 28 October 2007 by mutual agreement.  On 8 June 2007, the parties reached an oral agreement to extend the charter for another two years, to 2 November 2009.

The Charterers alleged that no such extension had been agreed and indicated an intention to redeliver the vessel at the end of October 2007, refusing to sign an addendum documenting the further extension. The Owners declared the Charterers to be in anticipatory repudiatory breach and accepted this breach as terminating the charterparty on 17 August 2007.

The vessel was redelivered by the Charterers on 28 October 2007. The Owners, having been unable to find an alternative employment for the vessel from October 2007, entered into a Memorandum of Agreement for the sale of the vessel for the sum of US$23,765,000 shortly before redelivery.Continue Reading Mitigation and the assessment of damages on early redelivery – “The New Flamenco”

With the inclusion of an electronic bills of lading clause in the latest iteration of the NYPE form, as well as the International Group of P&I Clubs’ approval of 3 electronic trading systems, we discuss some of the possible advantages and disadvantages of  such systems to international trade. Are the benefits that such systems are purported to bring too great to be ignored?
Continue Reading Electronic Bills of Lading