ABSTRACT
This chapter considers whether an owner or disponent owner can ever recover damages from a voyage charterer over and above demurrage where a delay in loading or discharging causes another type of loss – usually deterioration in a cargo. It looks at the decision of Lord Justice Males in the Court of Appeal before considering where the Court of Appeal decision takes us when delays in loading or discharging cause losses to an owner or disponent owner for which demurrage is not an adequate remedy. Finally, the court postulated that demurrage is not akin to a daily freight rate for the vessel to reflect the lost opportunity to trade the vessel on her next fixture but is arrived at, by factoring in a number of issues including, by inference, the risk of being liable for cargo claims arising from prolonged delay.
