May, 2020 - Supporting Documents and Time Bars: “The Tiger Shanghai”
A recent decision of the English High Court in MUR Shipping BV v Louis Dreyfus Company Suisse SA (“The Tiger Shanghai”) is likely to add to the sleepless nights of claims handlers who need to submitclaims with supporting documents in order to comply with a short contractual time limit.
The Association supported its disponent owner Member, Louis Dreyfus Company Suisse SA (“LDC”), in defence of a claim brought by its charterer, MUR Shipping BV (“MUR”).
The claim
The charterparty included the following provision:
“[Owners] shall be discharged and released from all liability in respect of any claim or claims which [Charterers] may have under Charter Party and such claims shall be totally extinguished unless such claims have been notified in detail to [Owners] in writing accompanied by all available supporting documents (whether relating to liability or quantum or both) and arbitrator appointed within 12 months from completion of charter.”
The issue in the original arbitration and the subsequent appeal was: what is meant by the phrase “all available supporting documents”?