Shipping—Charterparty—BIMCO Supplytime 1989 form

Queen’s Bench Division, Commercial Court, Gloster J, 5 December 2012

On the proper construction of cl 10(e) of the BIMCO Supplytime 89 form, in order for owners’ right “to suspend performance of any and all of their obligations” to be validly exercised, owners are not required to give charterers five banking days’ notice of the suspension.

Nigel Jacobs QC (instructed by Holman Fenwick Willan LLP) for the owners. Yash Kulkarni (instructed by Thomas Cooper) for the charterers.

By a time charterparty on an amended BIMCO Supplytime 1989 form, the claimant owners agreed to charter a vessel to the defendant charterers for two years firm. The charterparty contained a London arbitration clause. Further, cl 10(e) of the charterparty provided, inter alia: “While payment remains due owners shall be entitled to suspend the performance of any and all of their obligations hereunder.” The owners purported to suspend the provision of the services