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    International Sea Tankers Inc V Hemisphere S

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    Timisha
    The shipowners chartered a tanker to the charterers to transport oil from Iraq. When war broke out between Iran and Iraq, the tanker became trapped in the Shatt al-Arab river along with about 60 other ships. The parties agreed the charterparty was frustrated due to the war but disputed the date of frustration. The arbitrator ruled frustration occurred on November 24th. The charterers sought leave to appeal given other arbitrators ruled different dates for identical situations. The judge granted leave to provide guidance and ensure uniformity. The court dismissed the appeal, finding the arbitrator's award could not be viewed in isolation given the many trapped ships, and it was appropriate for the court to provide guidance to arbitrators in

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    International Sea Tankers Inc V Hemisphere S

    Uploaded by

    Timisha
    114 views2 pages
    The shipowners chartered a tanker to the charterers to transport oil from Iraq. When war broke out between Iran and Iraq, the tanker became trapped in the Shatt al-Arab river along with about 60 other ships. The parties agreed the charterparty was frustrated due to the war but disputed the date of frustration. The arbitrator ruled frustration occurred on November 24th. The charterers sought leave to appeal given other arbitrators ruled different dates for identical situations. The judge granted leave to provide guidance and ensure uniformity. The court dismissed the appeal, finding the arbitrator's award could not be viewed in isolation given the many trapped ships, and it was appropriate for the court to provide guidance to arbitrators in

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    Contract Case Law

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    International Sea Tankers Inc v Hemisphere S

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    The shipowners chartered a tanker to the charterers to transport oil from Iraq. When war broke out between Iran and Iraq, the tanker became trapped in the Shatt al-Arab river along with about 60 other ships. The parties agreed the charterparty was frustrated due to the war but disputed the date of frustration. The arbitrator ruled frustration occurred on November 24th. The charterers sought leave to appeal given other arbitrators ruled different dates for identical situations. The judge granted leave to provide guidance and ensure uniformity. The court dismissed the appeal, finding the arbitrator's award could not be viewed in isolation given the many trapped ships, and it was appropriate for the court to provide guidance to arbitrators in

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as rtf, pdf, or txt
    114 views2 pages

    International Sea Tankers Inc V Hemisphere S

    Uploaded by

    Timisha
    The shipowners chartered a tanker to the charterers to transport oil from Iraq. When war broke out between Iran and Iraq, the tanker became trapped in the Shatt al-Arab river along with about 60 other ships. The parties agreed the charterparty was frustrated due to the war but disputed the date of frustration. The arbitrator ruled frustration occurred on November 24th. The charterers sought leave to appeal given other arbitrators ruled different dates for identical situations. The judge granted leave to provide guidance and ensure uniformity. The court dismissed the appeal, finding the arbitrator's award could not be viewed in isolation given the many trapped ships, and it was appropriate for the court to provide guidance to arbitrators in

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as rtf, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    Page 1

    International Sea Tankers Inc v Hemisphere Shipping Co Ltd, The Wenjiang


    [1982] 2 All ER 437, [1982] 1 Lloyd's Rep 128, [1982] Com LR 7, 126 Sol Jo 524

    Court: CACivD

    Judgment Date: 01/12/1981

    Catchwords & Digest

    ARBITRATION - THE AWARD, REMISSION, APPEALS AND ENFORCEMENT - APPEALS - GRANT OF


    LEAVE TO APPEAL — APPLICATION OF GUIDELINES — ONE-OFF CASE
    The shipowners chartered a tanker to the charterers on a 12-month time charter commencing on 28
    April 1980. In September 1980 the charterers ordered the vessel to proceed to Basrah on the Shatt al-Arab
    river in Iraq near the border with Iran in order to load a cargo of oil. While loading, the vessel became one of
    some sixty ships trapped on the Shatt al-Arab river when war broke out between Iran and Iraq. The vessel
    completed loading on 22 September, but when she was unable to leave her berth on the river because of the
    hostilities the shipowners advised the master, on 7 October, that the crew should be evacuated. A Swedish
    peace envoy attempted to arrange a limited ceasefire to enable foreign ships trapped at Shatt al-Arab to
    leave the war zone but by 24 November his efforts to arrange a ceasefire had foundered and he turned his
    attention to getting the vessels out of the river. That was also unsuccessful and the vessels remained
    trapped. The parties were agreed that in those circumstances the charterparty was frustrated but a dispute
    arose as to the date of frustration, the charterers contending that the charterparty was frustrated either when
    war broke out on 23 September or at the latest by 7 October when it became clear, as the arbitrator found
    that the hostilities were likely to be lengthy, while the owners contended that frustration did not occur until the
    end of November or early December at the earliest. The arbitrator held in a reasoned award that the
    charterparty was frustrated on 24 November when it became apparent that the peace envoy's efforts to
    arrange a ceasefire had failed. In so holding the arbitrator differed from arbitrators in other arbitrations
    concerning vessels trapped on the Shatt al-Arab river who had decided on 4 October and 9 December
    respectively as the date of frustration, while yet another arbitrator had agreed with the date of 24 November.
    The charterers applied under s 1 of the Arbitration Act 1979 for leave to appeal against the award. The judge
    granted leave because of the conflicting decision of arbitrators on the date of frustration when the
    circumstances were virtually identical. The owners appealed against the grant of leave, contending that
    having found that the arbitrator had not misdirected himself or reached an unreasonable decision the judge
    ought not to have granted leave: Held the appeal would be dismissed for the following reasons: (1) having
    regard to the large number of vessels in the same situation as the chartered tanker the arbitrator's award
    could not be considered in isolation as if it concerned a ‘one-off’ case. Instead, applying the principle that it
    was in the interests of legal certainty that there should be uniformity in the decisions of arbitrators as to the
    effect of a single catastrophic event on similar transactions, it was appropriate to grant leave to appeal
    against the arbitrator's award so that the court could give guidance binding on arbitrators in other arbitrations
    concerning vessels trapped on the Shatt al-Arab river. (2) In any event, since the arbitrator's findings of fact
    suggested that the charterparty was frustrated on 7 October 1980, the court was entitled to form the
    provisional view that he was not right in deciding that it was not frustrated until 24 November, and that was a
    further reason for granting leave to appeal against his award.

    Case History
    Annotations Case Name Citations Court Date
    — International Sea [1982] 2 All ER 437, CACivD 01/12/1981 CaseSearch
    Tankers Inc v [1982] 1 Lloyd's Rep Entry
    Page 2

    Hemisphere Shipping 128, [1982] Com LR 7,


    Co Ltd, The Wenjiang 126 Sol Jo 524
    International Sea
    [1981] 2 Lloyd's Rep
    Tankers Inc v CaseSearch
    On Appeal from 308, [1981] Com LR QBD circa 1981
    Hemisphere Shipping Entry
    159
    Co Ltd, The Wenjiang

    Cases considered by this case


    Annotations: All CasesCourt: ALL COURTS
    Sort by: Judgment Date (Latest First)
    Treatment Case Name Citations Court Date
    [1982] AC 724, [1981] 2
    All ER 1030, [1981] 3
    WLR 292, [1980-84]
    dictum Lord Pioneer Shipping Ltd CaseSearch
    LRC (Comm) 391, HL 16/07/1981
    Diplock Applied v BTP Tioxide Ltd Entry
    [1981] 2 Lloyd's Rep
    239, [1981] Com LR
    197, 125 Sol Jo 542
    [1980] QB 547, [1980]
    3 All ER 117, [1980] 3
    dictum Lord Pioneer Shipping Ltd CaseSearch
    WLR 326, [1980] 2 CACivD 22/05/1980
    Dipock Applied v BTP Tioxide Ltd Entry
    Lloyd's Rep 339, 124
    Sol Jo 428
    [1980] QB 547, [1980]
    3 All ER 117, [1980] 3
    Pioneer Shipping Ltd CaseSearch
    Distinguished WLR 326, [1980] 2 CACivD 22/05/1980
    v BTP Tioxide Ltd Entry
    Lloyd's Rep 339, 124
    Sol Jo 428

    Document information

    Court

    Judgment date
    01/12/1981

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