Lloyd's Maritime Law Newsletter

Costs – Assessment of successful party’s costs

Charterparty – Demurrage – Whether laytime suspended at loading port – Freight – Whether obligation to pay 5 per cent balance of freight conditional on provision of “signed/stamped freight invoice” or on “breaking bulk” – Validity of notice of readiness at discharge port – Whether invalidity of NOR waived – Whether owners entitled to damages for detention – Lien on cargo – Whether owners entitled to exercise lien – Whether lien reasonably exercised – Shifting time

Sale of goods – Contract for sale of biodiesel cif Constanza – Diesel to be of Canadian origin – Diesel subsequently ascertained to be of US origin – Romanian Customs levying additional import duties on buyer – Whether buyer entitled to recover additional duties from seller – Whether sum payable by seller limited to invoice value

Charterparty – Whether vessel “in every way fitted for the voyage” – Whether vessel had adequate mooring facilities for loading installation

Arbitration – Time bar – Voyage charter arbitration clause providing that any claims had to be made in writing within three months of final discharge – No cargo in fact loaded – Owners not making claim in writing until more than three months after termination of charter – Whether claim time-barred

Carriage of goods by sea – Package limitation – Hague-Visby Rules compulsorily applicable on basis that country of shipment was a Hague-Visby state – Clause paramount in bills of lading referring to “Hague Rules 1924 as enacted in the country of shipment” – Whether reference to Hague Rules or Hague-Visby Rules – Whether parties agreed on original Hague Rules limitation figure of £100 gold value