Submission of
claims - ECF contracts
Quality
claims. Not later than 21 calendar days from the final date of discharge at
the port of destination.
All other claims
(technical claims). Not later than 45 calendar days from:
- The final date of discharge at the port of
destination, provided all the documents are available to the buyer, (i.e. the
coffee has been shipped); or
- The last day of the contractual shipping period if
the coffee has not been shipped.
These limits may be extended if the arbitral body at
the place of arbitration (mentioned in the contract) considers that one or other
of the parties will suffer undue hardship.
Submission of claims
- GCA
Under
GCA rules time limits are based instead on the filing of a demand for
arbitration, not on when the defending party is notified.
Quality claims: A demand for arbitration must be
filed with the GCA within 15 calendar days from date of discharge or after all
government clearances have been received, whichever is later.
Other claims (technical
claims): The only time limit is that a demand for arbitration must be filed
with the GCA not later than one year from the date the dispute first arose.
Usually one would expect to see a number of exchanges between the parties to the
contract before this but there is no contractual obligation on either of the
parties to do anything but file a demand for arbitration within the year.
(Depending on the type of contract dispute, the United States legal system
allows three to seven years for the filing of judgement. Quality claims are
subject to a 15-day limit because quality deteriorates over time.)
DEFAULT: One of the parties does not execute its part of the
contract. After declaring the offending party to be in default the injured
party can claim discharge of the contract with or without damages (but excluding
any consequential, i.e. indirect, damages). If the offender fails to pay these
or disputes them then the matter shall be decided by arbitration.
The default clause is
stipulated separately in the ECF contracts, mainly because the notion of a claim
assumes an incorrectly executed contract. Default on the other hand deals with
the cost and damage to the injured party of the total and possibly wilful
non-execution of a contract. As in the case of invoicing goods back for a
radical difference in quality, there are no fixed rules for determining default
damages. In the European Union the process depends on the arbitral body under
whose jurisdiction the arbitration is held. The GCA contracts provide for
arbitration in different US locations provided a location other than New York
has been specified in the contract. If no location is specified then arbitration
will automatically be held in New York with the arbitrators setting the damages
if any are awarded.
ARBITRATION: Any dispute
that cannot be resolved amicably shall be resolved through arbitration at the
place stated in the contract. Unless a different US location has been
specified in the contract, the GCA contracts automatically place arbitration in
New York, to be held in accordance with the law of New York State. However, the
ECF is the umbrella body for a number of national coffee associations in
sovereign countries, quite a few of which have their own arbitral bodies, rules
and legal systems. (See 07, Arbitration.)
In this context the most important are the United
Kingdom (London), Germany (Hamburg) and France (Le Havre), followed by Italy
(Trieste), Belgium (Antwerp) and the Netherlands (Amsterdam). All ECF contracts
provide that disputes shall be resolved by arbitration but the actual commercial
contract must state where this shall take place. If not then arbitration will be
delayed while the ECF Contracts Committee determines where it will be held and
the defending party may find itself having to deal with arbitration proceedings
in a location it is not familiar with.