HFW Briefing: Throwing the keys back

Throwing the keys back

Time charter redelivery notices are vital for shipowners in planning future employment for their vessels. It is therefore essential that there are clear and simple rules in this area which can be easily applied. However, the judgment in the GREAT CREATION has arguably only muddied the waters in what was already a controversial area.

This new judgment is important because it represents a radical departure from the previous understanding about how damages for breach by a time charterer of the redelivery notice provisions should be calculated. Moreover the judge decided that the old rules on redelivery notices fell foul of the guidelines on remoteness laid down in the ACHILLEAS. As a result, the GREAT CREATION judgment has arguably extended those ACHILLEASremoteness principles so as to make them applicable in new factual scenarios.

Click here to read more about the judgment and its implications.