We recently handled a case for an owner where increased losses were incurred during the course of their duty to mitigate loss. The charterer breached the charterparty by not loading cargo as contracted, and the owners looked for alternative cargoes in a very poor market where cargo availability was scarce. The owner fixed a substituted cargo to Bangladesh but as it turned out the voyage was loss making due to port congestion at Bangladesh and increased the owner’s losses. The question is whether the increased financial loss in excess of the loss of freight income on the original contracted voyage which the charterers breached, is recoverable from the charterer.
The owner’s FDD insurers appointed a law firm who opined it was not likely the owners would succeed to claim the increased loss from the charterers and accordingly did not support the owner’s claim. We did not agree with the FDD insurers and their lawyer’s opinion and our reasonings are summarized below.
See attached file: ALCO20130029 Increased loss arising from duty to mitigate.pdf
履行减损义务时扩大的损失是否可以得到赔偿
我们最近替船东处理了一个案子，船东在履行减少损失义务的过程中反而将损失扩大了。该案中租家违反合同，没按照合同规定装货。于是船东寻找替代货，但市场行情很差，适合的货盘很少。船东定了替代货物，卸货港是孟加拉国。但是，由于孟加拉国港口塞港，该航次最终亏损，最终船东的损失不降反升。现在的问题是，这部分额外的财务损失，即超出原租家违约航次运费的损失，是否可以从原租家那得到补偿。
船东的FDD保险人为船东指定了一家律师事务所，该律所认为船东成功从租家索赔到扩大的损失的可能性不大，认为船东无法索赔成功。我们不认同FDD保险人及其律师的观点。我们的理由总结如下。
详细信息请参阅附件。
