Notice of Readiness
The vessel was bound for a Mississippi river port. When she arrived at Southwest Pass the river was closed to ships her size following a hurricane, and thereafter while earlier arriving vessels went into berth ahead of her. She gave NOR at night and drifted off Southwest Pass until she was allowed to proceed. Under the WIPON term of the Charter the NOR was valid; but under the force majeure Clause laytime did not commence until the river reopened to ships her size. Bunkering during the transit upriver did not affect the ship's status as an arrived ship under WIPON, since the berth was then still occupied and Charterer benefitted from time not counting during the additional delay.
SMA 4062
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Since the charter provided for notice of readiness (NOR) to be given in berth if unoccupied, and for 6 hours of turn time after NOR “not to count even if used”, the panel disagreed with the calculations of despatch by both parties and performed its own calculation, commencing used laytime 6 hours after the ship was all fast in berth.
SMA 4062
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A vessel may tender notice of readiness before the first layday at any time it is ready to load, absent a specific provision to the contrary. NOR issued while vessel was waiting for berth at a customary anchorage outside the commercial limits of the port held valid
SMA 3666
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White Castle, not the South West Pass, held to be the “customary waiting place” for Baton Rouge.
SMA 3582 _______________________
Availability of a discharge berth is irrelevant to the tender of a valid NOR, but NOR held invalid where vessel was not ready to perform cargo operations because her over-age waiver was not in place
SMA 3539
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Owner’s material misrepresentation of vessel’s reasonably expected readiness date entitled Charterer to recover barge demurrage at loading port proximately caused by the delay
SMA 3492
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An after hour Notice of Readiness has no validity.
SMA 3441
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Charterer’s assertion that notice of readiness was not valid because it was given while vessel was outside port limits was rejected where the notice was accepted and signed by consignees with no reservations.
SMA 3317
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Notwithstanding certain limited deficiencies noted by the United States Coast Guard, an Owner may nonetheless offer a Notice of Readiness pursuant to the principle of “practical and substantial readiness.”
SMA 3227
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The panel found that the Ambrose Pilot Station in New York was not a “customary anchorage” within the meaning of Clause 6 of the ASBATANKVOY Charter Party Form. Owner’s issuance of a NOR from that location was therefore invalid.
SMA 3194
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Vessel could tender NOR prior to the commencement of laydays but laytime would not commence before the first day agreed in the charter.
SMA 3345
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The incorrect addressee of a Notice of Readiness did not justify cancellation of the charter party since the charterer was well aware that the vessel was in port and ready to load.
SMA 3911
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Here Vessel had not presented its notice of readiness to load together with a required surveyor’s report confirming that the cargo compartments were clean, dry, odor free and in all respects ready to load the intended cargo in accordance with charter party terms, charterer was under no obligation to place “cargo under hook”
SMA 3524
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Notice of Readiness was invalid, and laytime commenced only when loading began, due to the vessel’s noncompliance with a special cleaning clause, requiring tanks to be “well drained and stripped free of any liquid and pumpable cargo residues on arrival”. The Mas ter stopped discharging the prior cargo at a time when its receivers could still have off loaded more pumpable cargo. Thereafter the temperature of the residue fell below its pour point and became unpumpable
SMA 3732
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Clause 31 of the Rider set out the provisions agreed in relation to tender of NOR, commencement and allowed laytime as follows : "... Vessel to be loaded at the rate of 20,000 Metric Tons per weather working day of 24 consecutive hours, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays included, Charterers option to load at 25,000 Metric Tons..... Laytime shall commence 12 hours after the vessel tenders notice.....If the berth is not available on the Vessel's arrival, the Master may tender said notice from a lay berth or anchorage within the port limits." The loadport SOF records that the Vessel first tendered NOR at 2035 on 3 January 2021. However, the SOF also records that the Vessel only stopped to pick up a pilot and ended it sea passage at this point, weighing anchor shortly afterwards at 2240, at which point NOR was re-tendered. It is trite law that tender of NOR at the end of sea passage, before a vessel anchors or berths, is premature and invalid. Tribunal held that the NOR tendered at 2035 on 3 January 2021 was invalid and that the first validly tendered NOR at the loadport was that tendered at 2240 the same day.
LMAA 2022 ( Jus Mundi)
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Owner did not submit a copy of a Notice Readiness (NOR) that Owner states was tendered upon vessel's arrival at the Southwest Pass anchorage. However, Owner’s chartering manager, in a signed Declaration submitted to the Court, stated the NOR was given at 1110 on February 14, that laytime began 12 hours later at 2310 that day and that the vessel went on demurrage at 0640 on February 16. In a statement dated March 6, 2014, signed both by Mr. X and Owner’s CEO, Mr. Y, Owner confirmed the same times for the NOR and commencement of laytime. Owner’s Amended Submission also states that time on demurrage began at 0640 on February 16. Owner's laytime calculations and demurrage invoices, however, record time on demurrage beginning 24 minutes later, at 0704 on February l6. This latter calculation reflected allowed laytime based on a cargo intake of 31,900 MT. Given that the charter provided for a cargo of 31,500 MT, 10% more or less in Owner’s option, the panel accepts as correct, the calculation of allowed laytime based on an assumed intake 31,900 and. therefore, accepts that demurrage began at 0704 on February 16, as reflected in Owner's laytime statement. The panel also accepts that an NOR was tendered at 1110 on February 14, given the numerous references to it in documents sent to Charterers in the period before the charter cancellation, none of which Charterer disputed.
SMA ( issued in 2014)
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Though laytime and demurrage provisions were deleted, a specific provision for detention was inserted into the charter party. Therefore, even under the C.Q.D. it was still necessary to fix a point in time form which to measure detention and an NOR fulfilled this purpose.
SMA 2840
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Under NORGRAIN charter party providing that “Time used prior to commencement of laytime not to count in loading and discharge ports”, time used prior to laytime commencement for fumigation and discharging is precluded from laytime.
SMA 3510
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Where the charter party did not contain any restrictions about airdraft at the loading port, the vessel was considered ready to load when it gave NOR and laytime continued to run while the vessel took on water and bunkers to reduce its airdraft so that forklifts needed for stowing cargo could be put on board
SMA 2563
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If charterer fails to exercise its cancelling option on a late arriving vessel, charterer cannot unilaterally decide that any time spent waiting for a berth is to be for owner's account.
SMA 2947
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Even though the vessel breached the heating warranty, since it could berth, commence discharge of part of the cargo, and simultaneously heat the balance of the cargo to increase the temperature, the NOR was valid.
SMA 2940
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Owners acceptance without protest of the nomination of a disport which was not covered by the charter did not change the charter terms for commencement of laytime upon completion of lightering to safe draft, notwithstanding that the particular disport's local regulations required owner to enter the ship at customs or prepay port dues before notice of readiness could be tendered
SMA 2678
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Notice of Readiness tendered at the outer ice edge of ice-bound port was ““““premature and not effective” under a charter deemed to be a “port charter.” Under a “port charter” a vessel is required to reach the “jurisdictional limits of the port” in order to be considered an arrived vessel.
SMA 3835
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Presence of stowaways on-board did not detract from vessel’s readiness in all respects to load.
SMA 4281
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Under a berth charter, Owner had responsibility for navigation of the vessel from Recalada Pilot Station to the named berth.
SMA 4272
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Where the discharge was CQD (“customary quick dispatch”), the discharge was for Owner’s time and no laytime calculation would be issued.
SMA 4164
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Under a GENCON berth Charter Party providing for discharge at one safe berth Puerto Buitrago-San Nicolas (Siderar berth), NOR tendered at Recalada Pilot Station was invalid.
SMA 4272
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Under the AMWELSH form, Free Pratique is customarily not a pre-requisite for tendering NOR from anchorage within port limits.
SMA 4281