Law firm Stephenson Harwood LLP has advised Atlantic Marine & Aviation LLP (Atlantic) in its successful claim against Boskalis Offshore Marine Contracting BV (Boskalis). The English Commercial Court held that a party which failed to challenge an invoice within the agreed time period had no grounds to dispute payment.

Atlantic chartered its vessel to Boskalis on the BIMCO Supplytime 2017 standard charterparty; this is the first reported case on the new form. This particular charter stated that invoices had to paid within 21 days of receipt, unless the charterer gave notice of dispute within the same timeframe. In 2018, Atlantic obtained an arbitration award for immediate payment of its invoices on the basis that no such notice of dispute was served in time. Boskalis appealed to the Commercial Court, proposing an alternative meaning to the payment clause. However, this week the Commercial Court upheld the arbitration awards in favour of Atlantic.

"It is gratifying that the Court had no difficulties in accepting the clear wording within the Supplytime 2017 Charterparty" said Tony Concagh, partner, Stephenson Harwood. "While this issue always seemed clear to me, the Court has once again confirmed that parties should be held to the terms of their bargain when they chose to adopt a standard form such as this."

The Stephenson Harwood team consisted of partner Tony Concagh and associate Cathal Leigh-Doyle.

Tony Concagh is a Supplytime specialist, and frequently lectures on the topic.