Eastern Pacific Chartering Inc v Pola Maritime Ltd (The Divinegate) – [2022] EWHC 2095 (Comm), Queen’s Bench Division, Commercial Court (Ms Clare Ambrose, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court) – 10 August 2022

Shipping – Charterparty – Performance warranty – Contractual time bar for claim – Test for underperformance – “Good weather method” – Damages for wrongful arrest – Ownership of arrested vessel – Test for wrongful arrest

By a trip time charterparty dated 18 September 2019, the bulk carrier Divinegate was chartered by the claimant, the disponent owner, to the defendant for the carriage of a cargo of pig iron via the Baltic sea to the Mississippi River in the USA. The charterparty was on the NYPE 1946 form with additional clauses. Clause 8 set out the claimants’ obligations as regards the vessel’s state, performance and obligation to comply with the defendant’s instructions, subject to there being “no adverse currents”.