Trading places

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. However, the commercial manager had not properly checked the ship’s past trading and they missed the fact that it had traded to Sudan during the relevant three year period.

The charterers made a claim against the owners, alleging they had lost business as a result of the ship being rejected by potential receivers. Their claim was for almost US$ 500,000. In turn, the owner looked to recover this from the commercial manager.

Ultimately, a settlement of US$ 200,000 was agreed with the charterer. ITIC covered the settlement.