Claim email sent to wrong address

Members, were shipbrokers between owners and charterers. Owners sent their demurrage claim to the shipbrokers to pass to the charterers. They sent it to the shipbroker’s operations email address, despite 1) the recap specifying that any claims should be submitted to the brokers’ claims email, 2) a further email the day after the fixture specifying the same email address and stating that important messages must be followed up with a call, and 3) the same email again being specified in the shipbrokers’ email to owners reminding them of demurrage claims time bars. This final email also specified that if no acknowledgement was received, the shipbrokers should be alerted.

The owners’ demurrage claim sent to the operations email was missed by the shipbroker. It was only seen by them two months later when they received an email from charterers asking for any demurrage claims and carried out an email search. The claim was passed on to charterers that day but charterers advised that the claim was already time barred.

Owners argued that the shipbrokers should have passed the claim on to charterers, irrespective of the email to which it was sent, which they did not. ITIC set out the various notices sent by the shipbrokers regarding the correct email to use and pointed out that they were not liable since the brokers’ responsibility to pass on demurrage claims was on the basis that these were sent to the correct email address in the first place.

Owners did not pursue their claim, which eventually became time-barred under the shipbrokers’ terms.