'''English High Court'''

John Passmore, instructed by Jackson Parton, for the Appellant, Sylvia Shipping

'''Issues'''

The essential issue was this: What is the proper approach to damages in this context and, in particular, are damages based on the loss of a sub-fixture too remote in law.

Accordingly, Owners’ appeal was dismissed.

At first blush it might seem that Hamblen J’s decision is difficult to reconcile with The Achilleas. The situation is not helped by the different reasoning given by each of the judges in the House of Lords case. In the present case, it was decided that Charterers were entitled to damages for lost profit on a fixture lost as a result of a delay caused by Owners’ breach of charter. Yet, in The Achilleas, where Owners claimed damages for lost profit on a lost fixture as a result of Charterers’ late re-delivery, it was decided that they were not entitled to that lost profit. Owners may well be asking whether there is really a material difference between these two situations. The answer is “yes”.