HYUNDAI MERCHANT MARINE CO LTD v AMERICAS BULK TRANSPORT LTD (THE 'PACIFIC CHAMP')

摘要

Charterparty (Time) - Consensus ad idem - Whether parties concluded fixture -Arbitration - Whether arbitrators had jurisdiction to determine dispute. The claimant (HMM) was the bareboat charterer of the vessel Pacific Champ under a charter which excluded Orinoco River as a trading area. On 11 February 2008 negotiations commenced on the telephone between Mr B, for HMM, and Mr S, for the defendant (ABT), for the possible sub-charter of the vessel to ABT for the carriage of HBI (hot-moulded briquettes of direct reduced iron) from Houston via the Orinoco River and back to the US Gulf. It was HMM's case that Mr B told Mr S that the vessel was bareboat-chartered by HMM; that he (Mr B) would have to check with HMM's head office that the proposed carriage - HBI via the Orinoco River - was permitted by the bareboat charterparty; and that the proposed fixture would have to be based on a pro forma time charterparty which he was to obtain from HMM's head office.