Freight, hire and happenstance - a decade of change?

This article - in its consolidated form - recently featured in the LMAA Law Review 2015-2017. It comments on a series of recent decisions dealing with the assessment of damages following an early redelivery under a time charter-party. In these decisions, the “compensatory principle” (i.e. that damages should put the claimant in the same position as if the contract had been performed) has been given overriding significance with the courts now using hindsight in assessing damages, taking into consideration events and conduct which postdate the date of the breach and which could not have been in the parties’ contemplation at the time of the contract. The article is in two parts: the first takes a look at the significant cases over the last 10 years and highlights the dangers of such an approach, considering the role of speculation and its operation at the expense of certainty and finality.

Please click here to see the first article.

The second part of the article provides a more detailed summary and analysis of the four decisions in (i) The Golden Victory [2007] UKHL 12 (ii) The Glory Wealth [2013] EWHC 3153 (iii) Glory Wealth Shipping v Flame SA [2016] EWHC 293 and most recently (iv)The New Flamenco [2017] UKSC 43.

Please click here to see the second article.