Andre & Cie v Orient Shipping Rotterdam BV (The “Laconian Confidence”) - QBD (Com Ct)(Rix J) - 9 October 1996

NYPE off-hire clause - Vessel delayed as result of unforeseeable reaction by port authorities to presence of residue sweepings at discharge port - Whether vessel off-hire

The vessel Laconian Confidence was chartered on the NYPE form for a time charter trip from Yangon to Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi port authorities refused to allow the vessel to proceed to her next business following discharge because of the presence remaining on board of 15.75 tonnes of residue sweepings. As a result, the vessel was delayed for nearly 18 days. Although the underlying cause of the delay was the presence of the residue sweepings, the arbitrators found that the dominant cause of the delay (ie the causa causans being the immediate cause, the last link in the chain of causation) was “the highly bureaucratic attitude to the cargo residues taken by the various Bangladeshi authorities between 26 May and 13 June”. The arbitrators found that the delay after 26 May did not inevitably arise from the presence of the residue sweepings, but from the remarkable and unforeseeable reaction of the Bangladeshi authorities.