Newsfront – Legal Opinion – Time-Bar

In a claim for ship repairs the defendant (ships interests), raised a time-bar defense. The claimant produced evidence the defendant had acknowledged the claim at a later point of time, thus interrupting the time-bar, extending same.

Acknowledgment took place through confirmation by the master that repairs had been effected. Such confirmation enables issuance of the repairer’s invoices as VAT-exempt. The time-bar had not lapsed since such acknowledgment, and accordingly the defense raised was rejected.

Piraeus One-Membered Court of Appeal Judgment no 244/2017, Judge: A. Anastasiou, Attorynets at Law; K. Koulouris, G. Athanasiadis, Maritime Law Review vol 45, p. 132.

NOTE: Time-bar in a ship repair claim is one year, starting from the end of the year when claim arose. In the above case, the interruption of time-bar through the (indirect yet fully producing legal effects) master’s acknowledgment, led to a new time-bar starting point, allowing more time for the claim to be exercised.