12 August 2016
MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company S.A. v Cottonex Anstalt [2016] EWCA Civ 789, [2016] All ER (D) 159 (Jul)
The Court of Appeal held that, in circumstances where, under bills of lading, the defendant shipper was obliged to redeliver containers to the claimant carrier or suffer the imposition of demurrage, but was unable to redeliver in the foreseeable future because it did not have title, the carrier was only entitled to demurrage up to the date when it had been told of that impossibility. That was because it had then been clear that the shipper had repudiated the contract and the carrier was not in a position to wait for the contract to be performed as its performance had become impossible.
