| Award 1228

Award 1228 – Time-charter NYPE 1946 – Rice in bags – Damages and shortage on discharging – Inter-Club Agreement – Interest in acting and admissibility (no) – “Nobody may plead by proxy” rule. A bulkcarrier was time-chartered for the transportation of a cargo of rice in bags time-charterer did not not respond to the owner’s P&I Club notification holding him accountable by virtue of the Inter- Club Agreement included in the charter- party, so the shipowner applied to CAMP in order to condemn the time-charterer, as sea carrier, to refund the shipowner his share of the amount paid to the cargo interests. However the respondent argued that the amicable settlements had in fact been paid by the shipowner’s P&I Club to the subrogated insurers when the arbitration claim was filed in the name of the only shipowner. Therefore, the shipowner had no claim against the time- charterer as, according to French law, the party which sues before a tribunal must do it for itself, hence it must have suffered the damages.
In fact, on the face of the arbitration file, it was verified that, as a last resort, it was the P&I Club which paid the amicable settlements to the cargo interests and which had the interest to act against the charterer. The claimant, who had received no power of attorney from his P&I Club, therefore had its claim dismissed under the principle that “nobody may plead by proxy”.