What was in issue

A charterparty dispute about who bore the risk of delay when ports began closing in the first week of the pandemic. The force majeure clause had been drafted in 1996 and did not mention disease.

How it ran

The trial was the first in the Commercial Court to be heard fully remotely. We acted for the charterers. The argument was one of construction, and we ran it narrowly on the words rather than on any general doctrine.

The result

The clause was held not to cover the closures. The judgment is now regularly cited on the limits of general force majeure wording.

An award is only as good as the assets available to satisfy it. This was an enforcement matter from the outset, and the merits of the underlying reference were never seriously in dispute.

What decided it

The respondent’s assets had been moved through a chain of intermediate holding companies incorporated in jurisdictions that publish very little. Tracing the chain, and obtaining recognition in the jurisdiction where it terminated, was the whole of the work.

Why it matters

It is a reminder that enforcement strategy belongs at the start of an arbitration rather than at the end. Had the structure been examined before the reference was commenced, the security position would have been considerably stronger.