The Triton Lark [2011]: CONWARTIME and 'may be' exposed
The Commercial Court decision on the CONWARTIME 1993 threshold for refusing a war risk area that led BIMCO to redraft the clause in 2013.
Pacific Basin IHX Ltd v Bulkhandling Handymax AS (The Triton Lark) was decided by Teare J in the Commercial Court in 2011 and 2012. The charterers ordered the vessel through the Gulf of Aden and the owners refused under the CONWARTIME 1993 clause, relying on the words ‘may be, or are likely to be, exposed to War Risks’.
The court held that the owners had to show a real likelihood, amounting to a serious risk, that the vessel would be exposed to acts of piracy, judged by the owners’ reasonable judgement at the time. BIMCO redrafted the clause in 2013 so that the test became whether an area ‘is dangerous’, which is the wording printed as Clause 34 of NYPE 2015 .
The full article will cover the facts, the two judgments, the reasonable judgement standard, and the changes carried into CONWARTIME 2013 and CONWARTIME 2025.