Charles Debattista

Shipping

• Advice to a shipowner regarding statements about the condition of goods shipped two months before the issue of a bill of lading
• Advice to shipowners whose vessel was ordered to make for a Ukrainian port: safe port warranty and force majeure clause.
• Advice to shipowners on deductions from hire: off hire and deduction clauses.
• Advice regarding duty to pay hire for a time-chartered vessel under arrest.
• Represented a steel trader in the High Court in a shortage claim where bills of lading made quantity statements knowingly inconsistent with VGM values.
• Advice to a logistics platform drafting contractual rules for electronic bills of lading and electronic bills of exchange.

Commodities

• Represented a crude oil trader in the High Court seeking to undo a transfer of funds intended to avoid payment of a judgment debt: section 428 of the Companies Act 1986 and injunctions under CPR Part 25.
• Represented a coal trader in an LCIA arbitration in a dispute arising from the termination of a sale contract after fire damage at the relevant storage terminal.
• Advised an oilseed trader on a number of arbitrations brought against it by buyers for non-delivery of goods affected by export embargoes imposed by the Indian Government.

Arbitration

• Advised on a possible section 24 application for removal of an arbitrator by the High Court.
• Regularly instructed to challenge awards in the High Court under sections 67, 68 or 69 of the Arbitration Act 1996.
• Advised a provider of medical relief helicopters, a respondent in an ICC arbitration, in a successful challenge to a tribunal’s jurisdiction in a case involving multiple contracts sharing an agreement to arbitrate.

Has been appointed in ad hoc and institutional arbitrations as sole arbitrator, chair, or party-appointed sitting regularly with retired judges from England and Wales or from foreign jurisdictions; with KCs and with Full Members of the LMAA.

Recent appointments have included:

LMAA terms

• disputes under a super-yacht refurbishment contract – ongoing.
• allegedly premature termination of a charterparty, raising particularly difficult issues under section 41(3) of the Arbitration Act 1996 (strike-out for want of prosecution).
• deductions from hire and damages for the costs of de-fouling a vessel.
• laytime and demurrage, raising difficult procedural problems with one party situated in a warzone making participation in the reference difficult.

LCIA

• a sale of wheat dispute raising complex issues relating to sanctions and illegality.

MMTA (minor metals)

• sale of metal rods values at just under USD1,000,000, settled soon after Terms of Reference agreed.

HKIAC

• reference relating to a USD100,000,000 credit facility agreement with a sovereign State – ongoing.

Swiss Arbitration Centre

• sale of goods contract for steel valued at just under USD2,000,000.