In London Arbitration 1/21 a vessel was chartered on amended Asbatankvoy for a voyage between two Italian port. An addition clause required the claim and supporting documents to be received by Charterers in writing within ninety days of completion of discharge, failing which any claims by owners would be waived and absolutely barred. The clause went on to specify the supporting documents for a demurrage claim. “Insofar as demurrage claims are concerned the supporting documents to be received by Charterers must include a Laytime and Demurrage calculation issued in accordance with the allowances and exceptions provided in this Charter Party. Owners’ invoice, Notices of Readiness and Statements of Facts issued at loading and discharging ports, duly signed in accordance with Clause 17 above. If other Time Sheets or Statements of Facts are separately issued for other cargoes handled at the same port or berth, these documents should also be attached to Owners Laytime and Demurrage calculation.”
Owners sent documents and the claim to charterers within the ninety days, but charterers claimed three documents were invalid.
1. Owners’ demurrage invoice. Owners had submitted their invoice at the bottom of the document headed ‘Time Sheet’ but had not stated on the face of the document that it was an invoice. The Tribunal followed Lia Oil SA v ERG Petroli SpA [2007] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 509 and found that a single document could be both a laytime and demurrage calculation and an invoice.
2. Statement of facts at discharge port. Owners submitted an unsigned Statement of Facts, and a Time Sheet which had all the information expected of a statement of facts which was signed by receivers. The Tribunal accepted the second document as the Statement of Facts for the purposes of the time bar.
3. Port log, discharging log, and pumping log for discharge port. Owners had provided a detailed signed time sheet which was functionally equivalent to a port log and the unsigned statement of fact. They also provided a manifolds pressure log, which provided inter alia, the average discharge rate, the manifold pressure and number of pumps used for each hour of the discharge operation. That document was functionally equivalent to a discharging log and a pumping log.
Owners were obliged to present all supporting documents but Charterers had failed to identify any specific document owners had failed to produce or to produce an equivalent. That part of the challenge failed. Owners’ demurrage claim was not time barred.
