GEDEN OPERATIONS LTD V DRY BULK HANDY HOLDINGS INC (THE M/V "BULK URUGUAY")

[2014] EWHC 885 (Comm), Queen's Bench Division Commercial Court, Mr Justice Popplewell, 28 March 2014

Charterparty (time) - Piracy - Charterers giving voyage instructions to transit the Gulf of Aden - Disponent owners refusing to comply - Whether disponent owners in anticipatory breach entitling charterers to terminate - Arbitration Act 1996, section 69

The issue was the right of charterers to give voyage instructions for the vessel to transit the Gulf of Aden for which additional war risk premium was payable. The charterers contended that they were entitled to give orders for such voyages, subject to paying the additional cost. This was the time charterers' appeal on a question of law of the arbitration tribunal's conclusion that disponent owners had not been in anticipatory breach, so that charterers were not entitled to terminate and their purported termination was a repudiation. The charterparty was on NYPE terms, charterers having deleted the clause requiring disponent owners' permission to cross the Gulf of Aden. On her maiden voyage, head owners refused permission to transit the Gulf of Aden as was their right under the head charterparty. Charterers' considered that this constituted evidence of non-intention to perform the charterparty and terminated. The tribunal held that on the true construction of the charterparty, Gulf of Aden transit was not subject to the disponent owners' consent. The disponent owners' rights and obligations were therefore not back-to-back in this respect.