19/84

Time charter - Period of hire calculated by reference to elapsed time

“The charterers said that the overall period of hire should be calculated on the basis of local times at delivery and re-delivery. The owners said that the same time standard should be adopted throughout. That meant that the owners claimed nine hours hire more than the charterers were prepared to give credit for. The charter, as is so often the case, was silent on this question. However, hire was payable at a certain rate per day and pro-rata, as was overtime. If the ship went off-hire, it was for the period of time actually lost. Both these factors tend to indicate that elapsed time should be considered as relevant, as indeed to a large extent does commonsense. If a modern airliner were chartered with hire being payable from departure Hong Kong until arrival Los Angeles, notwithstanding that the journey would take nine hours, no hire would be payable because that is (normally) the time difference between the two places.