Comment by Thomas G. Macauley
Voyage charter parties give rise to the unique concept of laytime. When such a charter party calls for loading, discharging, or both to be performed free of risk and expense to the vessel, the charterer of the vessel is responsible for performing these functions. A charter party will allow a charterer responsible for cargo operations a certain amount of time to perform them. This time allowance is known as laytime. Although the commencement of laytime at a port is governed by the charter party, laytime never begins before the vessel is considered an arrived vessel. Once laytime commences, it generally does not run continuously; weekends and weather-related work stoppages are typical exceptions to laytime. Finally, laytime usually stops on the completion of cargo operations, if it has not yet expired.
If laytime has expired, then the charterer has failed to comply with his obligation to perform cargo operations within the allowed laytime. The extra time required to complete the cargo operations constitutes time on demurrage, and the charterer is liable to the shipowner for payment of demurrage. Time on demurrage is subject to fewer exceptions than is laytime; thus, the running of time on demurrage is less likely to be interrupted. The distinction between laytime and time on demurrage, however, seems to have eroded somewhat in this country during the past two decades. This Comment will discuss the exceptions to both laytime and time on demurrage and focus particularly on the modern trend in this country to equate the two.
About the Author
Thomas G. Macauley.
Citation
68 Tul. L. Rev. 627 (1994)