Summary: Navigazione Montanara Beheer BV)

The involved parties of this case included Navigazione Montanari Spa and Trafigura Beheer BV. Navigazione Montanari Spa is the ship owner of the “Valle de Cordoba” (the “Vessel”), also is the defendant of this case. Trafigura Beheer BV is the charterer of the ship for transport a cargo of premium motor spirit and also the case’s claimant.
The background facts of this case happen due to Navigazione Montanari Spa charter the ship to Trafigura Beheer BV for the carriage of a consignment of premium motor oil from Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire to Lagos, Nigeria. However, when Navigazione Montanari Spa was offshore south-west of Lagos and awaited the charterer’s order, the vessel was attacked by the pirates. The pirates control the ship owner and transferred the 5,300 mts of the cargo of large quantity of the oil by STS to an unknown lightering vessel. After that, the pirates departed with the cargo and released the vessel in the following day.
Therefore, the charterer brought a claim for loss of the cargo under an "in-transit loss clause" (ITL) in the Trafigura terms. The “in transit loss clause (ITL)”
The judge also ruled that the meaning of the clause of in-transit loss is express that the loss that is incidental to the carriage of oil products and does not extend to losses such as those caused by the action of pirates. Furthermore, the limitation of in-transit loss cannot be precisely defined. So, he considered that the loss from the activity of the pirates cannot be clearly