ASSONA BUILDING CO., LTD. v. AKERS MEK VERKSTED

JUDGMENT OF ARCHER J.A.

Akers Mek Verksted, as charterer, entered into a contract of charterparty with the owners of the steamship Cado Frio for the transportation of mackerel from Norway to Ghana. Tema was the port of discharge and the mackerel was consigned to the appellants as the purchasers. It appears that throughout the negotiations for the sale, the appellants were not aware of the conditions and terms of the charterparty as regards demurrage. When the ship arrived at Tema she could not dock because of congestion at the berths and she was therefore anchored outside the harbour.

Under the terms of the charterparty, the following conditions as to discharging and demurrage, were agreed between the owners and the charterer:

"DISCHARGING

(6) Cargo to be discharged charterers at their risk and expense at a rate of 125 tons per hatch per day. Time to commence at 1 p.m. if notice of readiness to discharge is given before noon, and at 6 a.m. next working day if notice given during office hours after noon. Time lost in waiting for berth to count as discharge time.

DEMURRAGE

(7) Demurrage at the rate of £300 (three hundred) pounds per day or pro rata for any part of a day, payable day by day, to be allowed merchants altogether at ports of loading and discharging."

It follows that when the ship arrived at Tema on 2 December 1963 at 7.30 a.m. and was unable to dock, the time allowed for discharging the mackerel fish began to run. Moreover, the time allowed for discharging the cargo was fixed at two days, five hours and five minutes from 2 December 1963 at 1 p.m. The ship remained outside the harbour until it berthed on 9 December 1963 at 6.20 a.m. and commenced discharging on 10 December [p.93] 1963 at 7.30 a.m. For various reasons, the unloading took more time than had been agreed to or envisaged. Both the shipowners and Akers were unhappy about the considerable delay and after a series of correspondence between Akers and the appellants, the latter guaranteed the payment of the demurrage. The ship was finally unloaded on 8 January 1964. The agents of the shipowners then submitted a bill for demurrage calculated as follows: time commenced to count as from 2 December 1963, at 1 p.m.; and as the time allowed for discharging was two days five hours and five minutes, the vessel came on demurrage on 4 December 1963 at 6.35 p.m. until 8 January 1964 at 6.30 p.m. The total number of days during which demurrage was payable was therefore 34 days, 23 hours, 55 mi