London Arbitration 1/21 | ZFZ Postcard Cases

This arbitration hops on the 2020 trend of demurrage time bar cases. The two 2020 demurrage cases both held that a failure to provide stipulated documents will bar an otherwise valid claim.

London Arbitration 1/21 concerned a voyage between two Italian ports. Owners commenced an arbitration to recover demurrage. Charterers alleged Owners had not provided an invoice within the required time and the time sheet provided could not act as such to satisfy the charterparty requirements. Owners relied on Lia Oil v ERG Petroli holding that a document could be both a laytime and demurrage statement and an invoice.

The Tribunal found that the time sheet did satisfy Owner’s obligations and the tribunal found that documents were provided within the time bar.

Read more on this decision here.