K Line PTE Ltd v Priminds Shipping (HK) Co, Ltd (The Eternal Bliss)

The club’s summary on the Court of Appeal decision, including the background facts, can be found in our previous item linked below.

In summary, the Court of Appeal concluded that demurrage ‘liquidates the whole of the damages arising from a charterer’s breach of charter in failing to complete cargo operations within the laytime and not merely some of them.  Accordingly, if a shipowner seeks to recover damages in addition to demurrage arising from delay, it must prove a breach of a separate obligation’.

The Supreme Court has now granted permission to appeal and is expected to clarify the long-debated issue of whether demurrage is an exclusive remedy for all the consequences of a failure to complete cargo operations within laytime or not.  We will report on this once the Supreme Court judgment is published.

Category: Caselaw