The Claims Review - Issue 45, October 2021

21/10/2021

Welcome to the October edition of the Claims Review

Hopefully many of you are beginning to get back to your office and life is becoming a bit more normal again. ITIC successfully hosted an almost complete board meeting (two directors joined the meeting virtually, with everyone else physically attending) at the end of September in London, for the first time since 2019.

21/10/2021

Size matters

A ship agent was informed by one of their LNG clients that they should have benefited from a quantity discount on pilotage tariffs available at the port for which the agent had erroneously not applied.

21/10/2021

Something fishy happening

A broker negotiated the sale of a fishing vessel. A Memorandum of Agreement (“MOA”) was signed between the buyers and sellers which included a clause providing that the broker would be paid 2% of the total purchase price by way of commission.

21/10/2021

Q&A with Geraldine Koon

Geraldine is the newest member of the ITIC team, joining as a senior claims executive in August 2021. In this interview Geraldine sits down to chat with the Claims Review editor, where she outlines what she is looking forward to the most about her new role and we learn why Geraldine hates high shelves…

21/10/2021

Miles not Acu-rate

A commercial manager was instructed to plan a voyage to Acu Port, Brazil.  

21/10/2021

Court case confusion

A crude oil tanker suffered an explosion during repairs in the UAE resulting in severe damage to the vessel.

Clause for concern

A shipbroker negotiated a short time charter on behalf of disponent owners (owners). The broker had worked with the owners for several years and it was their usual practice for the broker to use the rider terms of the owners’ head charter when fixing sub charters.

Propane-ful mistake

A shipbroker arranged a fixture of regular monthly shipments of propane by way of a COA.

21/10/2021

Tile shipper hits the roof

A liner agent accepted a booking for a shipment of 24 containers of roofing tiles which were to be carried by barge to the load port before being transshipped onto a vessel bound for the UK.

21/10/2021

Knot a problem if ITIC has you covered

A consultant geophysical surveyor was on board a client’s vessel performing a survey. Whilst measuring sound velocity in the water using a device owned by the client, the surveyor tied the measuring equipment with a poor knot which slipped, allowing the equipment to fall overboard. It was unrecoverable.

21/10/2021

Always get instructions in writing

A marine surveyor was requested to carry out an “On Hire Bunker” survey. Upon the surveyor’s arrival at the ship, the Master verbally informed the surveyor that tank number 3 starboard and tank number 3 centre were outside of...

21/10/2021

A poor technical point

A ship performed a charter and was then redelivered within the normal redelivery period as agreed under the charter party. Shortly thereafter, the owners commenced insolvency proceedings and the ship was auctioned...

21/10/2021

The Lost Buoys

A marine surveyor was asked by their client to review the suitability of a proposed mooring arrangement of a buoy weighing 250 tonnes and measuring 12m in diameter. The buoy was ultimately to be used by ships loading iron...

21/10/2021

Ask the Editor

My commission is being withheld due to the charterers failing to pay demurrage. Can owners do this? Thank you for this question. This is something we are seeing more and more often. The answer is, subject to the terms of the charter party, NO they cannot do so.