Making a fishmeal of it

A chartering broker described the ship’s four previous loads as being “grain”. On this basis, the charterers confirmed the fixture with the owners. However, the last cargo was actually fishmeal, and this would not have been acceptable. Therefore the ship was not suitable and had to be cancelled.

There was a EUR 5,000 fee to do so, which the charterer claimed back from the broker. They alleged the broker had been negligent in telling them the last four previous loads had all been grain, when actually they were; grain, grain, grain and fishmeal. The broker had made an error and simply had not noticed the most recent cargo had been fishmeal.

The claim of EUR 5,000 was settled by ITIC.