In London Arbitration 7/21 a vessel was chartered to carry coal. The owners were given the option to load between 27,000 and 33,000 mt of cargo, and the charterers were bound to provide a safe port/berth at the specified terminal. The owners exercised their option to load 33,000 mt
Prior to the fixture being concluded the owners had emailed the charterers’ agents at the loading port and had been advised that the maximum draft at the terminal was in excess of 13 m. The agents indicated that the vessel would berth at a specified berth where the vessel would have had no problem in loading 33,000 mt.
Charterers ordered vessel to load at a different berth where there was a lower maximum sailing draft and failed to change the berth nomination. There was a shortfall of 1,590 mt of cargo.
The tribunal held that the owners were entitled to exercise their option as to cargo quantity unfettered, and the charterers were bound to load whatever amount the owners opted for up to 33,000 mt. If, by their choice of berth, the charterers prevented the vessel from loading that quantity, they put themselves in breach of that obligation. By ordering the vessel to a berth where the draft was so limited as to stop the vessel loading 33,000 mt, the charterers frustrated the exercise of the owners’ option. Charterers were liable to owners in damages for the shortfall in cargo loaded
