London Arbitration 1/24
The vessel was chartered on an amended Norgrain form for carriage of 60,000mt (10% more or less in owners’ option) HSS (heavy grains, soya beans, and sorghums) in bulk from a range of ports in Brazil to 1 2/ ports in China. After loading the cargo in accordance with the charterparty terms in Paranagua the chartered vessel sailed on 6 June.
On 20 June, the receivers nominated Zhoushan (where the vessel was to lighten) and Taixing (to discharge the balance of the cargo) as discharge ports. On 26 June, owners submitted an invoice to the charterers for US$ 131, 154.90 calculating the freight on the rates agreed in the charterparty for Zhoushan and Taixing. On 3 July, the receivers changed the discharge ports and declared Tianjin instead of Zhoushan and Taixing.
The owners insisted that the freight had to be paid in accordance with the original nomination. The charterers argued that they were entitled to nominate Tianjin and pay the freight according to the rate specified in the charterparty for that port (which was lower than the freight allocated for ports originally nominated). The owners agreed to proceed to Tianjin following mutual consent to set up an escrow account held by the charterers’ lawyers in Hong Kong into which the charterers paid the disputed freight on 19 July.
The charterers raised two arguments:
- Given that the charterparty required the nomination of discharge port(s) before passing Singapore and the bills of lading issued identified discharge ports merely as “China Port(s)”, it was reasonable and foreseeable to expect changes prior to the time and point at which the final port(s) were to be declared; and
- If they were wrong on (a), the owners in any event agreed to vary the charterparty to permit discharge at Tianjin and therefore had waived the charterers’ breach, and were, accordingly, estopped from claiming the freight held in escrow.
The tribunal rejected both of the arguments of the charterer. On (a) the tribunal referred to the well-known judgment of Judge Diamond QC in The Jasmine B [1992] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 39, where he said:
In the absence of any special provisions in the charterparty, the effect of the nomination of the loading or discharging port by the charterer is that the charterparty must thereafter be treated as if the nominated port had originally been written into the charterparty and the charterer has neither the right nor the obligation to change that nomination.
On that premise, the crux of the matter was whether there was any special provision in the charter conferring any right on the parties to change a nomination validly made. The tribunal was of the view that charter terms that required characters to declare discharge port(s) as soon as they know of them and in any event 10 days before passing Singapore, were standard nomination clauses and they were not in any way “special” in the sense contemplated by Judge Diamond QC.
The alternative argument of the charterers (b) also failed as it was clear from the exchanges between the parties that owners at all times expressly insisted that the charterers had no right to nominate Tainjing and they would proceed there under protest, reserving all rights to receive freight on the basis that Zhoushan and Taixing were discharging ports. The escrow agreement eventually concluded was a clear indication that owners had no intention to waive their rights to freight being calculated on the basis that discharge ports were Zhoushan and Taixing.
There was also a dispute as to the amount that charterers were entitled to as despatch at Paranagua. On the statement of facts, 31 May was identified as a public holiday (Corpus Christi Day). The owners submitted that 31 May was not a public holiday in Brazil as it did not appear as such in the BIMCO Calendar. The charterers responded by providing evidence from the website of the Brazilian Embassy in London which described Corpus Christi as one of the “public holidays observed throughout Brazil”. The tribunal accepted this evidence put forward by the charterers and held that it made no difference that the holiday was not listed in the BIMCO Calendar.
The decision illustrates once again that port nominations are normally final and irrevocable and once a nomination is validly made, all consequences stipulated in the charterparty would follow including the calculation of freight based on the original nomination. It makes no difference that the voyage for which additional freight was claimed was never performed. This would not give rise to any unjust enrichment of the owners at the expense of the charterers. It is simply the result of treating the contract existing on the premise of the original nomination.
The decision also confirms that the BIMCO Holiday calendar is a very useful tool that can assist parties in fixing a charterparty, but it is simply guidance and in the absence of the charterparty declaring the dates in the calendar as final and conclusive for laytime calculations, the information provided in the calendar can always be challenged.