{"id":3019,"date":"2026-10-08T23:57:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T21:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/example.invalid\/?p=3019"},"modified":"2026-11-13T23:36:35","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T22:36:35","slug":"affretement-maritime-prescription-un-an","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/affretement-maritime-prescription-un-an\/","title":{"rendered":"Charterparties: how long do you have to bring a claim?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Voyage, time or bareboat charter: the precise contract must be identified before the merits are discussed.<\/p>\n<p>Limitation depends directly on that classification.<\/p>\n<h2>A one-year limitation period<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000023080040\/\">Article L. 5423-4 of the French Transport Code<\/a> provides that claims arising from a charterparty are time-barred after <strong>one year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This period may concern disputes over freight, demurrage, performance of the charterparty, vessel availability or the respective obligations of owner and charterer.<\/p>\n<p>The first difficulty is therefore to establish that the claim actually arises from the charterparty rather than another maritime regime.<\/p>\n<h2>The starting point depends on the type of charter<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033744423\/\">Article R. 5423-3 of the French Transport Code<\/a> distinguishes several situations.<\/p>\n<p>For a <strong>time charter<\/strong> or a <strong>bareboat charter<\/strong>, time runs from expiry of the contract or permanent cessation of its performance.<\/p>\n<p>For a <strong>voyage charter<\/strong>, it runs from completion of discharge or the event bringing the voyage to an end.<\/p>\n<p>Sub-chartering follows the same approach depending on whether it is on a voyage or time basis.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing the length of the limitation period is therefore not enough: it is necessary to determine precisely <strong>the date on which the year starts running<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2>Start with the charterparty<\/h2>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legifrance.gouv.fr\/codes\/article_lc\/LEGIARTI000033744421\/\">French Transport Code<\/a> provides that a charter is generally evidenced in writing and that the instrument recording the parties\u2019 commitments is the charterparty.<\/p>\n<p>When the file is opened, obtain:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the charterparty and any amendments;<\/li>\n<li>the precise type of charter;<\/li>\n<li>the date on which the contract or voyage ended;<\/li>\n<li>the dispute-resolution clauses;<\/li>\n<li>correspondence that may affect limitation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Prolonged commercial negotiations must never obscure the deadline.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Does the dispute actually arise from a charterparty and, if so, when did the one-year period begin?<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Claims arising from a maritime charter party are subject to a one-year limitation period: a short timeframe which makes it essential to identify the nature of the contract at a very early stage.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-droit-maritime"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3019"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3308,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3019\/revisions\/3308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abdennour-avocat.fr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}