“For the carriage of soya beans pursuant to an NYPE T/C, the Master insisted on a stowage plan involving strapping cargo in a slack hold. The issue was the cost and time of that operation, amounting to some USD410,000. Arbitrators found that the Master's requirement was unfounded, unnecessary and a breach of CI.8 but ruled that Art.IV r.2(a) of incorporated US COGSA excused Owners. The Court dismissed Charterers' appeal against that ruling, agreeing with the Tribunal that what motivated the Master was stability of the Vessel, thus his insistence was management of the Vessel and not the cargo.”

“The JHC/JCC standard sanction clause in a London market cargo policy did not entitle insurers to withhold payment of the insured's claim which arose when two cargoes carried to Iran in August 2012, were shortly thereafter stolen from bonded store. The clause requirement that payment "would expose that insurer to any sanction...under [UN, EU, UK or US resolution/regulation]" had not been met. At the time of the carriage and theft no relevant sanctions were in place and although at various times since then sanctions would have applied and indeed in the case of the US would soon re-apply (as of 5th November), the Court found that up until 1159 on 4 November, payment would not be prohibited under one of the named systems and therefore could not "expose" insurers to sanctions.”

“A vessel leaving port crossed and collided in the channel with an inbound vlcc awaiting the pilot. Both were to blame for observation failures. Whereas the crossing regulations would produce a different result, the CA, confirming the Court below, held that they did not apply. Instead the exiting vessel was subject to the narrow channel rule and at fault. Further, her excessive speed was significant to both culpability and apportionment.”

“A T/C description clause providing "above speed and consumption....with a tolerance of 5pct about" [emphasis added] did not imply a single 5% allowance where each of speed and consumption had been expressed in "about" terms. Further, "No negative influence of currents/swell" meant that those conditions did not qualify as good weather but positive currents and swell were to be ignored. And an off hire claim was held to be an attempted performance claim via the back door and in the absence of a stoppage or proof of time loss, failed.”

“Following default in owners' repayments, a ship was repossessed and sold by the claimant mortgagee bank who then sought a shortfall from the guarantor. The Court ruled that a defence of "sale at undervalue" although technically available to the guarantor, was unsustainable on the facts. Despite the sale price being just over the book debt it was nonetheless reasonable. Nor did sale to a client of the appointed S&P brokers involve a "connected person" such as to reverse the burden of proof.”

“After the collapse of a dam in Brazil, charterers were unable to supply cargoes from a flooded iron ore mine for shipment under a COA and relied on the force majeure or exception clause to excuse their failure. The Court found that in fact charterers would not have shipped cargoes in any event, so there was no causative effect between the dam burst and the failure and the clause was inapplicable. However, owners were unable to recover substantial damages as the dam burst would have prevented the shipment of any iron ore and the compensatory principle operated to prevent owners being placed in a better position than they would otherwise have been.”