A detrimental deletion

A member of a ship broker’s post fixture department was aware that a number of charterers had placed a block on emails with attachments above a certain size. A large number of emails have attachments which contain logos and similar symbols. She had developed the practice of deleting these attachments from messages before forwarding them on to the charterers.

Unfortunately when forwarding a demurrage claim she inadvertently deleted part of the supporting documentation for one of the discharge ports. The charterers subsequently refused to pay the part of the demurrage claim relating to that discharge on the basis they had not received a properly documented claim within the time specified in the charterparty. The claim of US$ 30,000 was paid by ITIC.