Continental Pacific Shipping Ltd v Deemand Shipping Co Ltd (The “Lendoudis Evangelos II”) - QBD (Com Ct)(Longmore J) - 15 November 1996

Time charter trip - Construction of “duration about 70/80 days without guarantee” - Whether actionable only in event that the estimate not given in good faith, or in the event that the estimate was not a reasonable estimate and/or was not given on a reasonable basis

The vessel Lendoudis Evangelos was chartered for one time charter trip “duration about 70/80 days without guarantee”. In the event, the trip took 103 days 12 hours 40 minutes, and the owners claimed compensation for wrongful detention of the vessel for 23.52 days. Before the arbitrator the owners submitted that the previously quoted words were a term of the contract constituting an estimate of the length of the trip which the charterers promised was made in good faith and on reasonable grounds. They submitted that the estimate had been negligently made. The charterers contended that the words “without guarantee” meant that there was no commitment on their part, save that the estimate of duration in the charter had to be made in good faith. Since no allegation of bad faith had been made, they argued that the owners should not succeed.