Shortly after 3 containers of Sree’s calcium hypochlorite (in tablet form, in boxes) were loaded on board Maersk’s chartered Vessel at Jebel Ali for carriage, there was an explosion in 1 or 2 of the containers and a fire on board. Maersk claimed that there had been violent decomposition of the cargo in breach of the B/L terms and sought some USD 13m in damages comprising settlement payments to (i) head owners, (ii) salvors, (iii) to those interested in other cargoes affected, plus other miscellaneous losses. The Court agreed, ruling that ‘Safmarine’ B/L terms were incorporated providing English jurisdiction, obligations as to potentially dangerous cargoes and their packing and as to indemnification, all of which had been contested by Sree, who failed to take part.

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The Grande Island was time chartered on the NYPE form for a trip from Ghent to Nigeria. The C/P incorporated the BIMCO 2013 Piracy Clause,  paragraph (c), providing Owners with liberty to take preventative measures, such as re-routing, in an area exposed to Piracy risk. Whilst waiting off Warri, as ordered, events arose giving Owners grounds for piracy risk concerns and they took the Vessel to wait off Lagos instead.  An Arbitration Tribunal upheld Owners’ claim for hire during the period away from Warri, rejecting Charterers’ argument that as the parties had chosen to delete the more generous liberties in paragraphs (a) and (b) of the BIMCO clause, they had effectively made paragraph (c ) redundant. On appeal by Charterers, the Court upheld the Tribunal’s ruling, and the Vessel remained on-hire.

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The Claimant scrap metal trader claimed against the Defendant insurers under its FDD and Charterers’ Risk insurance, following a liability to the owners of a chartered ship consequent on a cargo fire in 2022. The Court upheld the Defendant insurers’ case that failure to disclose 5 previous cargo fires (not giving rise to claims) in the more recent years of the parties’ 14 year relationship, constituted a breach of its Insurance Act duty of fair presentation, entitling the Defendants to avoid the policy.

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The Court held that insurers were entitled to rely on a war risks exclusion to reject claims for damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines following the 2022 Baltic Sea explosions. Although there were competing plausible theories as to who carried out the sabotage, the Court found that it was unnecessary to determine the perpetrators. On either version of events, the damage was directly or indirectly caused by, or occurred in consequence of, the Russia–Ukraine war and therefore fell within the exclusion.

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The Commercial Court dismissed an appeal, thereby upholding an arbitration award, arising from Owners' failure to provide a vessel within the agreed laycan under a contract of affreightment (COA). The Court held that each shipment under the COA constituted a separate and severable contractual obligation, such that a subsequent shipment did not cure the earlier breach. Charterers were therefore entitled to recover the orthodox contract/market measure of damages reflecting the cost of fixing substitute tonnage.

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The Court considered whether a payment obligation under a Saleform 2012 MOA expired at midnight in (i) Norway, where payment was to be effected, or (ii) in the most westerly jurisdiction referred to in the MOA definition of "Banking Days". The Court held that the definition of "Banking Days" merely identified which calendar days counted for the purpose of calculating time and did not determine when a day began or ended. Buyers were required to release the purchase price from escrow by midnight in Norway and were in default when they failed to do so.

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