Claims Review

Welcome to the Spring edition of ITIC’s Claims Review, April 2020. The Claims Review provides a selection of cases recently handled by ITIC.

A port agent was owed US$ 190,000 by a lumber company, the consignee of a cargo of lumber, in respect of both storage and demurrage charges.

During the course of fixing a ship, the owner’s commercial manager provided a warranty to the potential charterer that the ship had not traded to Sudan in the past three years.

Prior to a cargo arriving the local agent received an enquiry from the shipper asking whether the original consignee on the bill of lading could be changed. The agent advised that as long as all the parties were in agreement, it could be done.

The employee of a ship agent created false payment documents in respect of a genuine supplier to the agent. The employee provided all the necessary (false) documentation (including falsified operational approvals) before passing it onto accounting for payment.

The first in a regular series, we get to know ITIC’s claims handlers. In this interview, ITIC’s Legal Advisor and the new Editor of the Claims Review, Mark Brattman, outlines the most memorable claim he has handled and why not always having a pound coin in your pocket can prove to be very annoying!

A chartering broker described the ship’s four previous loads as being “grain”. On this basis, the charterers confirmed the fixture with the owners.

A UK based naval architect was appointed by a shipyard in the USA to design a vessel, of which more than one was due to be built.

A ship manager was appointed as a new building supervisor by an owner in respect of two ships they had under construction in a Chinese yard with the intention that they would become the managers of both ships upon delivery.

When reaching the final stages of a negotiation for the charter of a ship trading from the Black Sea to Spain, a ship broker applied laytime provisions which had recently been used in a previous fixture where NOR was tendered in China.

A ship was being fixed to transport a cargo of caustic soda.

A ship agent manifested cargo incorrectly due to converting the weight into the wrong unit of measurement.

ITIC has been receiving an increasing number of reports of fraudulent invoices being submitted to vessel owners and managers for medical testing services following the outbreak of the coronavirus.

If you have any claims related questions or queries please let us know on askeditorCR@thomasmiller.com and we will do our best to answer them in the next...