Once on demurrage, always on demurrage
The continuing breach analysis behind the maxim, and the words that contract out of it.
Once on demurrage, always on demurrage means that laytime exceptions stop applying when the ship goes on demurrage, so interruptions that would have suspended laytime no longer stop the clock. The rule reaches the same result through the common law and through the Laytime Definitions 2013.
At common law The Dias [1978] 1 WLR 261 treats the charterer’s breach in exceeding laytime as continuing until discharge completes, so liquidated damages accrue throughout unless the delay frustrates the adventure. Definition 30 of the 2013 code states the contractual version: demurrage is not subject to the exceptions applying to laytime unless the charter says so. The House of Lords expressly recognized that apt words can contract out.
The full article will cover the continuing breach analysis, the drafting that successfully excepts a period from demurrage, the position where the delay is the owner’s own fault, and the interaction with frustration.