The Global Santosh [2016]: the agents proviso in off-hire arrest
The Supreme Court decision on when an arrest is occasioned by the charterers' agents: it needs a nexus between the arrest and a function delegated under the charter.
NYK Bulkship (Atlantic) NV v Cargill International SA (The Global Santosh) [2016] UKSC 20 was decided by the Supreme Court on 11 May 2016. The vessel, on an Asbatime form with an off-hire clause excepting arrest ‘occasioned by any personal act or omission or default of the Charterers or their agents’, was arrested at Port Harcourt in a demurrage dispute between a sub-charterer and the cargo receiver under a sale contract.
The Supreme Court held that a party down the charter chain is the charterers’ ‘agent’ for the proviso only where there is a sufficient nexus between the occasion for the arrest and a function delegated to that party under the time charter. The sale-contract demurrage dispute was no part of any delegated function, so the proviso was not engaged and the vessel was off hire.
The full article will cover the facts, the majority and minority reasoning, and the effect of NYPE 2015 Clause 17, which names sub-charterers in the arrest exception without removing the nexus test.