The question of whether demurrage liquidates all or just some of the damages arising from a charterer’s breach in failing to complete cargo operations within the laytime has divided practitioners and academics for decades and, more recently, the English Court in K Line Pte Ltd  v. Priminds Shipping (HK) Co Ltd [2021] EWCA Civ 1712 (The Eternal Bliss). Now, in granting permission to appeal to the shipowners, it is a question which the Supreme Court has said it will answer.

Continue Reading The Eternal Bliss – Permission to appeal granted by the UK Supreme Court

In London Arbitration 5/12, the Tribunal considered the relationship between the requirement that a berth must be “always accessible” and the “weather working day” provision in the laytime clause in the context of determining whether Owners were entitled to damages independent of the laytime regime.

The vessel was chartered on an amended Syconamex form. The

In London Arbitration 6/12 ((2012) 858 LMLN 4), the Tribunal considered whether an additional clause giving Charterers the option to discharge at a second part (in which event time was to count from arrival at the pilot station to dropping outward pilot) operated independently of the charterparty laytime code.

The vessel was chartered on an