Upholding an arbitration award, the English High Court held that
it did not matter which of the two contractual trigger dates came
first to start the time limitation period running.
The issue examined by the arbitral tribunal and the High Court
in X v Y1 revolved around whether,
under the contractual terms of the charterparty, the arbitration
claim was out of time.
In a consecutive voyage charterparty (CVCP), the parties had
agreed to bring all demurrage claims under a modified Centrocon
arbitration clause "within 12 months of final discharge or
termination of this Charterparty".
The claimant, X, argued that a demurrage claim relating to the
first of three voyages under the CVCP was time-barred 12 months
after the date of the first discharge. Disagreeing, the defendant,
Y, argued that it had until 12 months after the date of termination
of the charterparty to present its demurrage claim. The arbitrator
agreed with Y and X appealed to the English High Court.
