Arbitration- Laytime Deduction for Slow Pumping

Pumping time in excess of the warranted 24 hrs. was deducted from used laytime because owner failed to justify the excess time.

Charterer had deducted 4 hours 30 minutes from used laytime on account of slow pumping.

Charterers said that the vessel failed to discharge the cargo in 24 hours as warranted in Special Provision 5 for a contract of carriage under an STB VOY form.

Owners asserted that it fulfilled its warranty and that the discharge exceeded the 24 hours only because of terminal interruptions.

The evidence indicated that discharge took 29 hours 20 minutes, not including terminal interruptions. Owners offered no acceptable explanation of this pumping performance and, therefore, a deduction of 5 hours 20 minutes from used laytime was allowed.

Note: this reflects the shift in the evidential burden, as mentioned in this article: Tankers: Slow pumping claims 1984 – (?) , Prokopios Krikris