This judgment also affects you!
A milestone in case law now strengthens the skipper’s legal position vis-à-vis the charter company.
After all, chartering is a predominantly cross-border legal transaction – and sometimes not only fairness but also the law falls by the wayside.
A few weeks ago, the Bavarian Higher Regional Court handed down a groundbreaking ruling that is of fundamental importance for all skippers, charter companies and charter agencies throughout Europe!
What practical significance does this ruling have for skippers?
Disputes between the skipper and the charter company occur time and again. Frequent reasons are wrongly withheld deposits or defects on the chartered ship.
Even if the skippers felt that they were clearly in the right, the legal enforcement of justified claims against the charter company was usually omitted in the past because they shied away from taking legal action in a foreign court with the associated uncertainties and costs.
Many a lawyer – often from a circle of friends – also gave the well-intentioned advice that a legal dispute abroad would be a lengthy and expensive venture.
What remained was frustration and anger on the part of the aggrieved skipper and many a scratch on the image of the industry, which also affected the charter companies, for whom fair business practices are fundamentally part of their business model.
This ruling finally provides clarity!
The key message:
The Bavarian Higher Regional Court clearly stated that a charter customer in disputes with the foreign charter company can sue the latter before the charter company’s domestic court and on the basis of domestic law – even if a foreign place of jurisdiction was expressly specified in the charter contract!
The only but decisive prerequisite:
Only if the charterer books domestically – e.g. with a domestic charter agency – will he be able to enforce his rights domestically in the event of a dispute!
Booking with a domestic agency provides the skipper with decisive legal certainty in the event of a conflict with the charter company!
YACHT-POOL has been committed to a fair and legally secure relationship between charterer and charterer for many years, for example with the international YACHT-POOL charter conditions of the Charter-Fairtrag(www.charterfairtrag.de) and the numerous examples in the book “Die Haftung des Skippers – seine Rechte / seine Pflichten”.
That is why it is also very important to us to make this judgment, which was won by a skipper insured with YACHT-POOL, accessible to the wider skipper community.
Desire or frustration?
What was your experience of chartering?
In this context, we would also like to ask you to share with us your positive and negative experiences from your “charter life” and thus help us to separate the wheat from the chaff for the benefit of our skipper customers.
Welcome back!
We have just received the surprising news that Andrea Barbera, who founded Master Yachting Deutschland over 30 years ago, one of the big players among charter agencies, is actively returning to the charter industry herself.
The new agency Barbera Yachting, founded together with her son Max, is now online with its homepage(www.barbera-yachting.de).
“Welcome Back” was the thank you her customers received when they returned from their cruise. We hope that charter companies and charterers will now say the same about her return.
Committed, competent agencies are definitely a benefit for everyone in times like these.
This year in particular, which has been challenging for everyone, has shown us that the mediation work performed by the agencies should not be underestimated.
Best sailing greetings,
Yours
Dr. Friedrich Schöchl
with the YACHT-POOL crew
