London Arbitration 5/02

Contract - Agency - Shipbrokers offering vessel for charter to prospective charterers - Fixture concluded - Whether shipbrokers acted as principals or as agents

The vessel was chartered on the Gencon form as amended for the carriage of a cargo of sheet piling from Holland to Ireland. The claimant owners claimed the freight from the respondents who, the owners said, were the charterers of the vessel. The respondents were described in the negotiations and the unsigned charter as the charterers, but the respondents denied that they had concluded a contract with the claimants.