The Athena [2013]: net loss of time under NYPE off-hire
The Court of Appeal decision confirming that the NYPE off-hire clause deducts only the time lost to the service immediately required of the vessel.
Minerva Navigation Inc v Oceana Shipping AG (The Athena) [2013] EWCA Civ 1723 was decided by the Court of Appeal on 23 October 2013. The vessel, on an amended NYPE form, drifted for about eleven days off Libya instead of proceeding to Benghazi, and the question was whether hire ceased for that period even though the charterers could show no net delay to the eventual discharge.
The Court of Appeal held that the NYPE words ’the payment of hire shall cease for the time thereby lost’ look to the time lost in performing the service immediately required of the vessel, not to the net effect on the chartered service as a whole, and restored the arbitrators’ award that the vessel was off hire for the drifting period.
The full article will cover the facts, the reasoning, its relationship to The Berge Sund and The Marika M, and how the decision is applied under NYPE 2015 Clause 17.