The Legal Effect of “Subject-to” in Charterparty Contracts

When negotiating charterparties, it is very common to make such negotiations “subject to” a variety of conditions. Justice Foxton in Nautica Marine Ltd v. Trafigura Trading (The Leonidas) [2020] EWHC 1986 (Comm) offered a valuable guidance on the legal effect of such clauses in charterparty contracts.

In the case, the owners entered into negotiations between 8-13 January 2016 to conclude a voyage charterparty for their crude carrier, the Leonidas, with Trafigura. These negotiations were initially subject to “Charterers’ Stem/Suppliers’/Receivers’/Management Approval” latest 17.00 Houston time, Tuesday 12 January, 2016. The loading ports were to include Aruba and St. Eustasius (collectively referred to as Statia). The intended loading terminal rejected the Leonidas on the basis that the vessel was too large to load at that particular berth (the vessel could have been able to load from the Statia SBM- another nearby terminal not chosen by the charterers).

The owners brought an action against Trafigura arguing that this was a performance condition, meaning that it is a condition which does not prevent a binding contract coming into existence, but if not satisfied the contract would cease to be binding. Building up on that, the owners argued that it was an implied term of the charterparty that Trafigura would take reasonable steps to satisfy the suppliers’ approval subject. It was maintained that Trafigura took no such steps to obtain that approval, or alternatively, that Trafigura bearing the burden of proof, would have to show that the suppliers’ approval would not have been obtained even if reasonable steps had been taken.

Foxton, J, held that the “Suppliers’ Approval Subject” was a pre-condition to a contract (condition precedent to contract) and, therefore, Trafigura was not required to take steps to obtain its suppliers’ approval. A few factors led him to conclude in this manner:

  • a “subject” is more likely to be a pre-condition than a performance condition where the subject involves the exercise of a personal or commercial judgment of one of the potential parties to a contract. Here, it was a commercial choice for Trafigura to determine who the relevant supplier would be and which terminals and berths/tanks within terminals, cargo would be loaded from;
  • the particular negotiating language of the parties referring to agreements as “on subjects” and “lifting” subjects, point towards a subject in the chartering context being more likely to be a pre-condition because it connotes that the subject is resolved by one or both parties removing it, rather than the subject being resolved automatically on the occurrence of an external event; and       
  • based on previous authority, the “Stem Subject” and “Management Approval Subject” were both pre-conditions; where “subjects” appear as a compendious phrase, it is more likely that they are all intended to have the same effect.

Obiter dictum, Foxton, J, considered how damages were to be assessed if the clause had been a performance condition. He held that because the alleged lost benefit (loss of profit under a concluded charterparty) was dependent on the decision of a third party (supplier) to approve the vessel, damages in that case had to be assessed on a “loss of chance” basis (Wellesley Partners v. Withers [2015] EWCA 1146)

Two points emerge from the judgment that have implications for the market. First, the judgment strongly indicates that a “subject to” clause in a charterparty will normally be construed as a condition precedent to a contract given that such clauses often involve the exercise of a personal or commercial judgment of one of the parties to the contract. Obviously, it is still possible that a “subject to” clause could be treated as a performance clause if it depends on the approval or performance of those other than the parties to the contract; e.g. “subject to the approval of the Ministry”. In that case, the question may arise whether or not one of the parties to the contract must act reasonably or in good faith in taking steps to ensure that the condition is lifted (See, The John S Darbyshire [1977] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 457). Second, there was a disagreement in the case as to whether the suppliers referred to in the subject were only terminals from which cargo was intended to be loaded or included the charterers’ contractual suppliers. Foxton, J was adamant that the phrase encompassed all those approvals which the charterer commercially wished to obtain on the supply side. This sounds sensible but naturally makes such conditions more challenging from the shipowners’ perspective.          

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Professor Barış Soyer

Professor Soyer was appointed a lecturer at the School of Law, Swansea University in 2001 and was promoted to readership in 2006 and professorship in 2009. He was appointed Director of the Institute of Shipping and Trade Law at the School of Law, Swansea in October 2010. He was previously a lecturer at the University of Exeter. His postgraduate education was in the University of Southampton from where he obtained his Ph.D degree in 2000. Whilst at Southampton he was also a part-time lecturer and tutor. His principal research interest is in the field of insurance, particularly marine insurance, but his interests extend broadly throughout maritime law and contract law. He is the author of Warranties in Marine Insurance published by Cavendish Publishing (2001), and an impressive list of articles published in elite Journals such as Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly, Berkley Journal of International Law, Journal of Contract Law and Journal of Business Law. His first book was the joint winner of the Cavendish Book Prize 2001 and was awarded the British Insurance Law Association Charitable Trust Book Prize in 2002, for the best contribution to insurance literature. A new edition of this book was published in 2006. In 2008, he edited a collection of essays published by Informa evaluating the Law Commissions' Reform Proposals in Insurance Law: Reforming Commercial and Marine Insurance Law. This book has been cited on numerous occasions in the Consultation Reports published by English and Scottish Law Commissions and also by the Irish Law Reform Commission and has been instrumental in shaping the nature of law reform. In recent years, he edited several books in partnership with Professor Tettenborn: Pollution at Sea: Law and Liability, published by Informa in 2012; Carriage of Goods by Sea, Land and Air, published by Informa in 2013 and Offshore Contracts and Liabilities, published by Informa Law from Routledge in 2014. His most recent monograph, Marine Insurance Fraud, was published in 2014 by Informa Law from Routledge. His teaching experience extends to the under- and postgraduate levels, including postgraduate teaching of Carriage of Goods by Sea, Transnational Commercial Law, Marine Insurance, Admiralty Law and Oil and Gas Law. He is one of the editors of the Journal of International Maritime Law and is also on the editorial board of Shipping and Trade Law and Baltic Maritime Law Quarterly. He currently teaches Admiralty Law, Oil and Gas Law and Marine Insurance on the LLM programme and also is the Head of the Department of Postgraduate Legal Studies at Swansea.

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