Contract
Al Giorgis Oil Trading Ltd (a company incorporated in Liberia) v AG Shipping & Energy Pte Ltd (a company incorporated in Singapore) [2021] EWHC 2319 (Comm), [2021] All ER (D) 45 (Aug)
The claimant owner of a vessel was granted its application for summary judgment on its claim for hire accrued prior to the termination of the charterparty with the defendant charterers, and for damages consequent upon the claimant’s termination of the charterparty on the basis of the defendant’s repudiation or renunciation. The Commercial Court held that the defendant’s contention that the failure by the claimant to allow for off-hire periods had no realistic prospect of success on the basis that the advance payment of hire was the commercial quid pro quo for the defendant’s right to use the vessel and crew and the suspension of performance was not arguably irrational, arbitrary, or capricious: the claimant was entitled to payment for the continued availability of the vessel. Further, the defendant was both in repudiatory breach of the charterparty and had renounced it: the claimant had good reason to believe that it
