Trader and shipowner Trafigura has won a UK court case against a client that claimed it had been supplied with a substandard oil cargo.
Trafigura took defendant Renbrandt to the high court to defend itself in a dispute dating back to 2007.
It had agreed to sell 25,000 tonnes of gasoil by way of ship to ship transfer off Cotonou, Benin.
The delivery date was put back to October 2008 and 9,866 tonnes were delivered from a tanker named as Bonito to another named as Sichem Province.
Upon loading, the cargo was tested, judge Lionel Persey QC said, and a certificate of quality was issued by Saybolt, showing the cargo was on-spec.
No claim was submitted by the defendant within five days of the issue of bills of lading.
But Renbrandt subsequently alleged that the cargo was off-specification.
It filed a petition with the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2009, claiming the oil was contaminated with other cheaper cargoes.
That petition was subsequently withdrawn in 2010.
But in September 2016 the defendant filed a second petition with the EFCC, prompting Trafigura to start proceedings against Renbrandt in Nigeria for malicious filing, claiming damages of NGN 2m ($5.54m).
The defendant alleged there had been no valid service of the legal documents, but the judge disagreed.
It also claimed Trafigura's claim was time-barred.
"Absurd position"
The judge said: "The thrust of the defendant's case here is that the declaration of non-liability is time-barred in very much the same way as any claim by the defendant in respect of off-spec cargo would be time-barred.
"If correct, this argument would lead to the absurd position that the claimant is effectively precluded from contending in the contractually agreed forum that the defendant's claims are time-barred in circumstances where the defendant has wrongfully brought a time-barred claim in a non-contractual forum.
"I do not accept the defendant's assertion that there has been undue delay on the part of the claimant in bringing its claim."
He added: "I am entirely satisfied that the defendant has no prospect of successfully defending this claim."
Persey ruled that, firstly, the cargo was on-specification and secondly, the defendant did not submit a claim in respect of quality within five days.
Thirdly, he said, Renbrandt's claim is time-barred.
Persey gave permission for Trafigura to apply for a summary judgment and avoid a trial. He has granted a declaration of non-liability in respect of any quality claim.
