Hong Kong's Noble Chartering has been given leave to appeal a High Court ruling in the UK as part of a legal dispute over cargo damage on a bulker.
Birketts, the law firm representing the dry bulk operator, told TradeWinds the decision by judge Mark Pelling QC is a "rare" move and the case is a long way from being closed.
Pelling's earlier judgment in the case was already rare in that it was itself an appeal against a London arbitration ruling.
The dispute concerned Noble's entitlement to an indemnity against cargo damage claims brought in China.
Pelling's decision hinged on the role of masters in checking the state of cargo loaded on vessels, and the case could set an important precedent for future legal battles.
Noble was the disponent owner of the 73,000-dwt Tai Prize (built 2001) when it was sub-chartered to Priminds Shipping (HK) in 2012 to carry heavy grains, soybeans and sorghum from Brazil to China.
Master could not have known state of cargo
The London tribunal had previously found that the soybeans were shipped in a damaged condition but that the master could not reasonably have observed such defects during the course of loading.
Therefore the charterer, Priminds, was liable to indemnify Noble, a unit of commodities trader Noble Group..
However, at appeal, Pelling accepted Priminds' argument that the master should have checked whether the goods appeared to be OK.
Pelling said everyone knows it is the master’s task to make his own assessment independent of any declarations by the shipper, and he held the indemnity did not apply to Noble.
Penningtons Manches Cooper, the law firm representing Priminds, said the decision was likely to be of wide interest in the maritime sector, particularly to charterers and other users of standard form bills of lading such as the Congenbill 1994 form, and their insurers.
The tribunal had originally ordered Priminds to pay Noble $500,000, and potentially a further £35,000 ($46,000), plus costs.
