- •V.V. Serafimov, d.O. Nikisha
- •Introduction
- •Freight
- •Lecture I. Shipping law. Charterparties: an introduction
- •Voyage charterparty
- •Lecture II. General contractual terms
- •3. Extension of a hire period.
- •4. Delivery and Redelivery of a vessel.
- •Lecture III. Owners’ contractual obligations, rights and remedies
- •Lecture IV. Charters contractual obligations, rights and remedies
- •5. Lawful directions and orders.
- •Lecture V. Chartering negotiations
- •Us East Cost to Italy
- •Lecture VI. Freight and Hire
- •Freight
- •Cancellation damages
- •Cancellation and delay
- •Stowage factors
- •Court holds that owners consented to deductions from hire of allowance for time lost and cost of bunkers
- •Shipowners successful in appeal following bunker discrepancy
- •Charterer refused leave to appeal against off-hire ruling
- •The crew that disappeared
- •Court ruling on proper method of establishing average fuel consumption under warranty
- •Appeal dismissed in dispute over vessel’s failure to meet charterparty performance warranty
- •Court upholds owner’s appeal in domestic fuel consumption dispute under charterparty
- •Danger to life “not likely”
- •Open all hours: nor valid when office day starts
- •Right place, right time: charterer wrongly cancels for non-arrival
- •Case № 15 Court of Appeal finds sub-charterers and receivers to be charterers’ “agents” for purposes of proviso to off-hire clause
- •In nyk Bulkship (Atlantic) nv V Cargill International sa (The Global Santosh)
- •Illegitimate last voyage
- •Too Much Cargo - Damages for Deadfreight
- •Arbitration V Jurisdiction: Incorporation into a Bill of Lading
- •Arbitrator as Advocate
- •Glossary
- •List of recomended sources
- •Internet source:
- •Annex Time Charter
- •1921 August 6th,
- •1931 October 3rd, 1946
- •Contents
- •Introdaction ...................................................................................................................................................3 lecture course
- •Interactive seminar programme ...............................................................................................45
3. Extension of a hire period.
Express and implied extensions to a hire period. Despite the fact that the period of a charter is frequently expressed in terms of days, weeks, months or years, it is virtually impossible for a charterer to ensure that a vessel will complete all the tasks assigned to it by a given date, some time in the distant future. Even though the charterer will seek to ensure that the last assigned voyage will terminate either at the port of redelivery, at the designated date, or at some other port which allows the vessel to proceed to the port of redelivery under ballast by the designated date, the charterer is likely to find it difficult to hit a specific target date with any precision. This can be specifically required in the charterparty but will almost certainly result in either early or late delivery and thus result in a breach of the requirements of the charterparty. For this reason most charterparties provide a tolerance or «window of opportunity» for the vessel to be redelivered. Even if a «window» is not expressly provided this may be implied at common law.
Options to Shorten or Extend a Charter Period. Where the charterparty contains an express provision for the extension of the charterparty the provisions regarding notice become critical.
Extension of a charter - prolonging of the period during which a ship is on time charter. An option to extend the charter may be incorporated into the charterparty, very often on the same terms but possibly at a different rate of hire.
Clause 13 of the NYPE: That the Charterers shall have the option of continuing this charter for a further period of... on giving written notice thereof to the owners or their Agents ... days previous to the expiration of the first-named term, or any declared option.
If there is a requirement that in order to take advantage of the option to extend then, once a charterer exercises that option the charterer cannot subsequently cancel the option and return to the original hire period. The notice is regarded as being final since in reliance on the notice the owner is likely to have made follow on arrangements for the employment of the vessel. Presumably the same rationale would apply to notice to exercise an option to redeliver early, as where the margin is stated as + or - 15 days. A failure to provide notice if required by the charterparty may result in the charterparty date becoming final.
Last voyage. Some charters make special provision, whether by a standard printed clause or by special addition, for what is to happen if the ship is still on her final voyage at the end of the charter period.
In time charters the «last voyage» is the final voyage before the charterer returns the vessel to the owners. As already stated above, the charterer wants to make the maximum use of the vessel while he is still paying for its services within the time provided by the charterparty. When the charterer gives directions for a final voyage which is reasonably expected to be completed by the end of the charter period it is considered as a legitimate last voyage and the owner must obey the charterers' directions. No problems arise if such last voyage can be performed as expected - the vessel can be re-delivered on time. However, if the voyage that originally could reasonably be expected to be completed cannot be terminated by the end of the charter period it depends on who is responsible for the fault through which the delay was caused.
In case of the term "last voyage" a distinction must be drawn between two kinds of clause. On the one hand, there are clauses which protect the charterers from a liability in damages when a legitimate final voyage overruns the charter period that is, when the ship is not redelivered on time even though, at the time that the charterers gave their final voyage orders, it was reasonably expected that the voyage would be completed within the period of the charter. On the other hand, there are clauses which render lawful orders for a final voyage which is not reasonably expected to be completed within the period of the charter. A clause of the latter kind in effect overrides the charterers’ duty to redeliver the ship at the end of the agreed charter period.