2018-03-16
5209 General Principles 基本原则
1.29 If loading or discharging are not completed within the time allowed, then the shipowner is entitled to be compensated for the extra time taken. This may take the form of liquidated damages, demurrage, or unliquidated damages, where the claim is one for detention. Demurrage is usually specified in the charter as a daily rate and the parties may agree either for a limited period on demurrage or, more commonly, for an unlimited period. It is now generally accepted that failure by the charterer to complete loading (or discharging) within the time allowed is a breach of contract.
1.29如果装货或卸货作业未能在允许的时间内完成，则船东有权要求为额外的占用的时间获得补偿。当索赔是对船舶延滞提出的，这种补偿形式可能是议定赔偿，滞期费，或未经议定的损害赔偿。滞期费通常是以每日费率的形式规定在租船合同之中，同时当事双方既可以对滞期约定一段限定的时间，或者更常见的是，不加限定的时间。现在一般都普遍地接受，承租人未能在允许的时间内完成装货(或卸货)作业，就属于违约。
1.30 The demurrage rate fixed by the parties is intended to cover the vessel’s daily running costs, plus the profit the shipowner would have been able to earn had his vessel been released timeously. There are, however, some charters where demurrage is rarely earned, because the laytime allowed is usually more than sufficient to cover any unexpected delays in loading or discharging. This is usually referred to as despatch business.
1.30由双方当事人确定的滞期费率，其用意是包含船舶的每日营运成本，再加上，假如船东的船舶已经被及时地解脱放行的话，船东本可以获得的那部分利润。然而，对于有些租船合同，滞期费却很少能够赚取，是因为所允许的装卸时间通常远远足够包括在装货或者卸货作业之中发生的任何意外的延迟。这通常被称之谓‘速遣费’业务。
1.31 As a liquidated damages provision, the amount payable as the daily demurrage rate must be agreed in advance but, like freight, it will be subject to market pressures.
1.31作为议定赔偿的条文规定，作为每日的滞期费率所支付的金额必须事先约定，但，可能像运费一样，其数额取决于市场行情的压力。
1.32 A phrase much used with regard to demurrage is ”once on demurrage, always on demurrage”. What this is intended to signify is that demurrage is payable on a running day basis, and that laytime exceptions do not apply once demurrage commences. It will take very clear words to convince a court that the parties intended a particular exception to apply once the vessel is on demurrage. In The Spalmatori, in discussing whether the Centrocon strike clause applied to strikes commencing after the vessel was on demurrage, Lord Reid said:
. . . if it occurs after demurrage has begun to accrue the owner might well say: "True your breach of contract in detaining my ship after the end of the laytime did not cause the strike, but if you had fulfilled your contract the strike would have caused no loss because my ship would have been on the high seas before it began: so it is more reasonable that you should bear the loss than that I should."
The same reasoning, of course, applies to any exception. Likewise, laytime exceptions and even demurrage exceptions do not normally apply to claims for detention.
1.32 关于滞期费，最经常使用的措辞是‘一旦滞期，永远滞期’。这句话所要表达的意思是，滞期费应是以连续日为基础而进行支付的，而且一旦滞期已经开始，原先对于装卸时间的各种除外免责事项不再适用。只有采用非常明确无误的措辞才能使法院确信，当事双方曾经意图一旦船舶进入滞期，仍可适用具体的除外事项。在The Spalmatori—案中是讨论标准谷物租船合同中的罢工条款(the Centrocon strike clause)是否适用于在船舶进入滞期之后才开始的罢工情况，Reid勋爵说：
……如果罢工是在滞期已经开始计算之后发生，船东或许可能有理由说：‘诚然，在装卸时间结束之后，你违反合约延误我船的行为并未引起罢工，但是假如你当时已经圆满履行了合同，则该起罢工本应该不会给我造成任何损失，因为在罢工开始之前，我的船舶早已在公海上了。因此，由你承担这项损失要比由我承担更为合理。’
当然，同样的理由也适用于任何其他除外时间。同样地，装卸时间的除外事项，甚至于滞期的除外事项，一般来说，对于就滞期损失提出的索赔，也均不适用。
1.33 Prima facie, liability for demurrage rests with the charterer and, even if the terms of the charter are effectively incorporated into the bills of lading issued under the charter, this will not be sufficient in the absence of an express provision to make the receiver jointly liable for any demurrage that has accrued. However, one way in which the receiver may be made liable for demurrage, particularly demurrage at the discharge port, is by the grant of an express lien on the cargo in favour of the shipowner. If this is combined with an effective cesser clause, then the result will be to transfer all liability for demurrage to the receiver. However, a lien for demurrage is only a possessory lien, so that if the shipowner loses control of the cargo, he loses his lien and the receiver can no longer be held liable for any demurrage that might otherwise be due. In these circumstances the shipowner will have lost his right to claim demurrage from either the charterer or the receiver.
1.33从表面上看，对于滞期的责任好像是由承租人承担，而且，即使租船合同的条文已经被有效地并入到根据租船合同签发的提单之中，如果没有明确规定的话，这仍是不足以使收货人对任何已经产生的滞期费承担连带的责任。但是，有一种方式可能促使收货人对滞期负有责任，特别是对于在卸港发生的滞期费，就是赋予对船东有利的明示的货物留置权。如果这与有效的承租人责任终止条款相结合的话，其结果就会使滞期费的所有全部责任转移给了收货人。但是，因滞期费而产生的留置权只不过是一种占有留置权，因此，如果船东丧失了对货物的控制，他也就失去了他应享有的留置权，同时他也就不能再要求收货人对任何可能的滞期费负责了。在这种情况下，船东将会丧失掉他向承租人或者收货人任何一方索赔滞期费的权利。
1.34 If loading or discharging is completed within the laytime allowed, then, if so provided for in the charter, despatch will be payable either in respect of all time saved or, less commonly, for all working time saved.
1.34如果在允许的装卸时间内完成装货或卸货作业，那么，如果在租船合同中对速遣有规定的话，则应对所节省的全部时间，或者通常较为少见的，所节省的全部工作时间，支付速遣费。
1.35 As Devlin J said in Compania de Navigacion Zita SA´v. Louis Dreyfus & Cie:
The shipowner's desire is to achieve a quick turn-round; time is money for him. The object of fixing lay days and providing for demurrage and despatch money is to penalize dilatoriness in loading and to reward promptitude.
Where despatch money is payable, it is almost always at half the demurrage rate.
1.35犹如Devlin法官在Compania de Navigacion Zita SAv. Louis Dreyfus & Cie一案中所说的：
船东的愿望是实现船舶快速周转；对他来说，时间就是金钱。确定装卸日期和规定滞期费与速遣费的目的，就是要对在装货作业中的延缓进行惩罚，并且对于快捷进行奖励。
如果需要支付速遣费的话，该项费率几乎总是滞期费率的一半。
1.36 A claim for detention will arise where a vessel is delayed by default of the charterer, or those for whom he is responsible, during the currency of a charter. Unliquidated damages are recoverable for such delay, except where it occurs after the vessel has reached its specified destination and loading or discharging, as the case may be, has not been completed, when any remaining laytime may be offset against the delay, or if the vessel is on demurrage then demurrage will be payable.
1.36如果在租船合同期间，船舶由于承租人的或者其应对之负责的那些人的违约行为而被延迟，就会产生对船舶延滞的索赔。对于这种延迟，非议定性赔偿是可以得到补偿的，除非是它发生在这些情况之后，即船舶已经抵达其指定的目的地，视情况而定，还没有完成装卸货作业，而剩余的装卸时间可以与该延迟进行冲抵，或者是，如果船舶进入滞期，则将支付滞期费。
1.37 Once laytime has expired, then, if the charter contains a provision for demurrage, this will become payable until loading or discharging is complete or the charter is brought to an end by its future performance becoming frustrated or by one of the parties’ evincing an intention to repudiate the charter, which repudiation, is accepted by the other party. Thus if the charterer failed to provide a cargo and showed an intention never to so do, the shipowner would be entitled to claim that he had repudiated the charter and accept that repudiation. If, on the other hand, the shipowner did not accept that repudiation, then demurrage would continue to be payable until the shipowner did so accept or until the charter became frustrated. The difference between these two ways in which the charter can come to an end is that frustration occurs upon the happening of an external event, whereas repudiation and acceptance thereof is by act of the parties.
1.37一旦装卸时间已经届满，而且，如果租船合同中含有一条滞期费条文规定的话，它将成为应该给予可支付的了，并且一直要支付到装货或卸货作业完成时为止；或者支付到由于将来的履约行为而使合同受挫失效为止，或者支付到由于一方当事人表明拒绝履行租船合同的毁约意向，而这种意向又被另一方所接受从而致使合同终止为止。因此，如果承租人没有提供货物并且表明意向他根本不会样做时，船东就有权对他已经拒绝履行租船合同而提出索赔并接受这种毁约。在另一方面，如果船东没有接受这种毁约，那么滞期费就要不断地支付下去，直到船东确实接受了这种毁约，或者直到租船合同的受挫失效为止。这两种可以使租船合同终止的方式之间的区别是，合同受挫失效是产生于偶发的外部事件，然而，毁约和接受，则是出于当事双方的行为。
编者介绍
魏长庚船长：1996-2000 年在大连海事大学学习，获得航海技术专业学士学位。具有16年海上船舶航行经验，魏长庚船长一直热爱海商法（重点是英国海商法）的学习，并致力海商法的翻译工作（包括Informa出版的Bill of Lading（提单），Laytime and Demurrage（装卸时间与滞期费）等书籍
公益出版译著《Aikens on bills of lading》第二版中英文对照，筹款链接https://crowd.dreamore.com/project/view?project_id=1482230291&from=timeline（可点击进入）
海运圈聚焦专栏作者 魏长庚船长（微信号CaptWei）
