In the context of an arbitration relating a claim under a film-production policy, the insurer applied to Court for the removal of the sole arbitrator on the ground of apparent bias due to his knowledge of and attitude towards the insured's factual and expert witnesses and some remarks that he did not intend hear the insured’s expert witnesses because he knew them “all personally extremely well” as "exceptional people in their fields". The judge found no actual or apparent bias based purely on his past industry relationship with the witnesses. Nevertheless, the arbitrator was removed because the suggestion that it was unnecessary to cross-examine the insured’s expert witnesses was plainly not an expression of a balanced and impartial view as it gave rise to an apprehension that he had pre-determined favourable views, thereby pre-judging the merits of the dispute.

A Voyage C/P provided that loading laytime was to cease from 1700 hours before until 0800 after a “public holiday”. Owners disputed the interruption of laytime at Paranagua for the “Corpus Christi” holiday on the grounds that it did not appear in the BIMCO calendar. The Tribunal found that the BIMCO calendar was not definitive on the point and accepted instead Charterers’ evidence (from the Brazilian Embassy in London website) that Corpus Christi was one of the public holidays observed throughout Brazil.

The parties conducted negotiations for a 4 year T/C, culminating in a Recap, containing ‘subs’ and references to further terms to be agreed; further terms were advanced by Trafigura, commented on by Owners (“Owners’ last”) and countered by Trafigura. Following Owners’ silence and Trafigura’s chasers, the latter purported to accept “Owners’ last” and advised that they lifted all ‘subs’ and were fully fixed. Granting summary judgment to Owners, the Court held: the ‘subs’ and further terms TBA precluded the Recap being a concluded contract; “Owners’ last” was not capable of acceptance (and had been rejected) and Trafigura’s subsequent conduct was of no contractual effect. There was no concluded C/P.

M as disponent owner, chartered the Vessel to S, under an NYPE subject to English law and London Arbitration. S provided bunkers to the Vessel, but failed to pay the supplier who was ultimately paid by M, to avoid Vessel arrest. S had sub-chartered to O (a Singaporean company), who had incurred demurrage. To recoup its bunker payment, M served on O a notice of its NYPE Cl.18 lien “on sub-freights… demurrages… for any amounts due under this Charter”. S asserted that no amounts were due to M under the T/C. The Singapore Court upheld M’s lien, ruling that third party demurrage fell within its ambit and the bunker payment constituted an amount “due under this Charter”; whilst the dispute between M and S was referrable to London Arbitration, that did not preclude M exercising its lien against O and enforcing it in the Singapore Court.

In a T/C dispute involving a laden passage from Venezuela to Italy, Charterers alleged ‘unreported’ voyages near the load port and Gibraltar, misrepresentations (BOD and consumption) and underperformance, and deducted from hire. The Tribunal found disclosure failings: Owners’ logs were variously illegible or incomplete, the oil record book was withheld; Charterers did not volunteer their contemporaneous weather routing report, relying instead on a reconstruction by their expert. Nevertheless, the Tribunal found that Master’s noon reports were not ‘wildly’ inaccurate, and neither the contemporaneous evidence nor Charterers’ expert evidence supported any of their allegations. Owners’ hire claim succeeded, and Charterers’ cross claim failed, each in full.

Following seizure of the “Polar” by Somali pirates, Owners paid a USD7m ransom, which they sought to recover from Cargo by way of GA contribution. Cargo argued that the C/P War Risk scheme and GoA clause, created an insurance ‘fund’ to be used by Owners in the event of piracy, precluding Owners from seeking reimbursement from Charterers (save as to premia), and that the same scheme was incorporated into the B/L, relieving Cargo from contribution obligations. The SC (upholding Courts below) ruled that the effect of incorporation was that Cargo had no responsibility for premia and were not relieved of the obligation to contribute.