When the boat comes in: when making a windfall profit does not count as mitigation - John Denis-Smith (Practical Law Construction Blog)

The Supreme Court handed down its judgment in Globalia Business Travel SAU (formerly Travelplan SAU) v Fulton Shipping Inc of Panama on 28 June 2017. It brings to an end an extraordinary saga.

The parties had entered a charter party of a vessel owned by Fulton. There was a dispute and the charterer redelivered the vessel to Fulton in October 2007. Fulton treated the charterer as in anticipatory breach of contract and accepted the breach as terminating the charter party. There was no available chartering market on redelivery. Shortly before redelivery, Fulton sold the vessel for US $23.7 million. There was a significant difference between the value of the vessel when it was sold and its value when it would have been redelivered if the charterer had not breached the contract. This was because the market crashed between the time of actual redelivery and the date when the vessel should have been redelivered had the charter party run its course.

To read John's full blog, please click here.