Bandwith Shipping Corp. v Intaari, Court of Appeal - Commercial Court, October 17, 2006, [2006] EWHC 2532 (Comm)
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Bandwith Shipping Corp. v Intaari, Court of Appeal - Commercial Court, October 17, 2006, [2006] EWHC 2532 (Comm)
Neutral Citation Number: [2006] EWHC 2532 (Comm)Case No: 2006 Folio 221IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICEQUEEN'S BENCH DIVISIONCOMMERCIAL COURTRoyal Courts of JusticeStrand, London, WC2A 2LLDate: 17/10/2006Before:MR JUSTICE CHRISTOPHER CLARKE- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Between:- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Mr Timothy Young QC & Mr Michael Collett (instructed by More Fisher Brown) for the ClaimantMr Luke Parsons QC & Mr Christopher Smith (instructed by Ince & Co) for the DefendantHearing dates: 6th & 7th September 2006- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Approved Judgment23MR JUSTICE CHRISTOPHER CLARKE: 1. This is an application by the claimants pursuant to section 68 (2) (a) of the Arbitration Act 1996 (``the Act'') for an order that the Court should remit for reconsideration an award of an arbitral tribunal (``the Tribunal'') consisting of Mr Lionel Persey, Q.C., Mr Nigel Teare, Q.C., and Mr Patrick O'Donovan, upon the ground that there has been a serious irregularity in the conduct of the arbitration in that the Tribunal failed to comply with its duty under section 33 of the Act. In order to explain how the irregularity is said to have come about it is necessary to set out the facts as found by the Tribunal and to chart some of the progress of the arbitration since the irregularity is said to arise from what happened on the last day of the hearing and thereafter.The background facts2. The claimants (``the Owners'') are the owners of an ice-classed multi purpose Ro-Ro vessel, the ``Magdalena Oldendorff'' (``the vessel''). The vessel is an ice classed ship, not an ice breaker, that is to say she is a bulk carrier with an ice blade on a strengthened bow. The Owners chartered her to Intaari of St Petersburg, the respondents (``the Charterers''), under a charterparty on an amended Baltime form dated 2nd March 2002 (``the charterparty'') for a period of 45 days plus up to 10 days for a voyage to and from Antarctica. The purpose of the voyage was to replenish supplies and transfer personnel at two Russian scientific stations namely Novolazerevskaya (``Novo'') and Mirnyy. A charter in March is late in the season for navigation to the Antarctic. The hope was that the vessel would arrive at and leave Antarctica in the early part of the Antarctic winter. But the charterparty provided for hire to be payable, at a reducing rate, if the vessel was frozen in and unable to reach open waters before the end of the season. In the event this is what happened.3. The charterparty contained in clause 26 (a) the following warranty:``The vessel was constructed to operate independently in thick one year old ice with enclosed multi year old ice. The vessel is capable to break up to 1.2. metres of one year old fast level ice with both engines at the continuous speed of 3.5 knots and to break ridges of 7 metres in the running mode. The vessel has an ice knife on the stem for safe navigation of the vessel in Antarctica wate...See the full content of this document
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