The appeal to the Supreme Court, which was to be heard in June 2023, will not proceed after a settlement agreed between the parties. For now, the law stands with the Court of Appeal’s decision that demurrage liquidates the whole of the damages arising from a charterer’s failure to complete cargo operations within the laytime allowed, even if the shipowner has suffered a further type of loss other than the loss of use of the ship (such as the cargo claim liabilities at issue in this case).

Simon Rainey KC and Tom Bird represented the owners, instructed by Nick Austin and Mike Adamson of Reed Smith.