Benjamin Parker

Date of Birth: 1976
Date of Call: 2000, Middle Temple
Languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish

General Information
Queen Mother Scholar of the Middle Temple
M.A. Jurisprudence (Oxon.), First Class
B.C.L. (Oxon.), First Class
Scholar of St Hugh’s College, Oxford

Sweet & Maxwell Prize for the best performance at the University of Oxford (1996); Gibbs Prize (1997); Hurry Prize for the most distinguished First in Final Honour Schools (1998); Prize for International Trade Law (1998); Prize for Corporate Insolvency Law (1999).

2001-2007: Lecturer in Law, University of Cambridge and Fellow and Director of Studies in Law, St John’s College, Cambridge.

Practice
Benjamin Parker has been a tenant at 7 King’s Bench Walk since October 2001. He returned to full-time practice in 2008, having taught at the University of Cambridge between 2001 and 2007, where he was a University Lecturer in Commercial Law and Assistant Director of the Centre for Corporate and Commercial Law.

He specialises in all aspects of commercial law, with a particular emphasis on the following areas of practice:

• shipping law, both “wet” and “dry”;
• insurance and reinsurance disputes;
• private international law;
• commercial contractual disputes;
• the international sale of goods and commodities;
• finance and banking law;
• the carriage of goods by sea, land, and air.

He has significant experience of appellate work, having appeared in the House of Lords and Court of Appeal, and undertaken a case before the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

He is a contributing editor to Jack on Documentary Credits (4th edition, 2009), which includes a full analysis of the revised provisions of the UCP 600 governing documentary credits.

Selected Cases and Experience

Shipping Law

• The Achilleas (Transfield Shipping Inc. v. Mercator Shipping Inc.) [2009] 1 A.C. 61, House of Lords.
  Junior counsel for the appellants, led by Dominic Kendrick QC. This is the leading decision of the House of Lords on the rules of remoteness of damage in the law of contract.
  
• A very substantial (in excess of US$100 million) charterparty dispute arising out of the grounding a bulk carrier, raising allegations of unseaworthiness, incompetence of the Master, misrepresentation, and mistake.
  
• The Bremen Max. A multi-party Commercial Court dispute concerned with letters of indemnity issued under charterparties, the availability of injunctive relief, the effect of the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999, and novel issues concerned with misrepresentation, mistake, and the law of restitution. Led by Stephen Hofmeyr QC.
  
• Numerous MOA disputes arising out of the sale of vessels and “super” yachts. These include (in 2010) an arbitration concerning allegations of fraud and forgery and (in 2008) an arbitration, raising complex factual and legal issues as to the meaning of Clause 9 of the Norwegian Saleform on encumbrances, the nature and effect of the “statutory liens in Admiralty”, and the basis of Admiralty jurisdiction under both English Law and Singaporean Law.
  
• A series of related cases about charterparty rights of lien against sub-hire and sub-freight, the nature of statutory and equitable assignments, and the effect of interpleader proceedings under RSC Order 17.
  
• A wide variety of charterparty and bill of lading disputes, including recent cases about:
            - the collision of the "Cosco Busan" into the Bay Bridge, San Francisco Bay as a result of pilot error;
            - the relationship between the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992 and rights
              of suit in bailment
            - the effect of transferring "spent" bills of lading; 
            - the enforceability of charterparty guarantees and devices for avoiding the
              application of the Statute of Frauds 1677;
            - the meaning and effect of the GENCON strike clause; and
            - laytime and demurrage claims arising out of Hurricane Gustav in the Gulf
              of Mexico.
  
• “Wet” shipping disputes, including very substantial salvage claims, and a series of complex shipping and insurance disputes arising out of the capsize of a car carrier.
  
• Advising on the construction and effect of the rules of a P&I Club.
  
• General Average disputes under the York-Antwerp Rules
  

Insurance and Reinsurance

• Marine insurance claims, including a recent dispute concerning the constructive total loss of a bulk carrier and the legal implications of a CTL being declared.
  
• Aviation insurance: recently advising and settling pleadings in relation to the alleged theft or misapprpriation of three passenger aircraft in Iran and the legal effect of the Lloyd’s AVN 67B clause.
  
• September 11 contingency claims: a reinsurance arbitration in 2008 concerned with the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and whether very substantial contingency losses (mostly arising out of the cancellation or postponement of sporting events, such as the US National Football League and the Ryder Cup) could be aggregated for the purposes of excess of loss reinsurance. The dispute raised novel issues of causation and remoteness, and whether the four terrorist attacks of September 11 constitute “one event” for the purposes of aggregation.
  
• Equitas Ltd v. Guy Carpenter and Company Inc. Junior counsel for the claimants, led by Christopher Butcher QC. Commercial Court claim against reinsurance intermediaries for delayed remission of funds owing to reinsurers—tort claims for loss of long-term investment income—claim in restitution for time value of money, and application of the Sempra Metals principle—remoteness of damage and limitation issues.
  
• Advising and settling pleadings in relation to a complex policy attachment and aggregation dispute under successive E&O policies, concerning liabilities (totalling in excess of US$250 million) arising out of PA LMX spiral business.
  
• Advising on insurance coverage for fire and explosion claims, raising issues of causation, non-disclosure, the “continuing” duty of the utmost good faith, breaches of warranty, and the legal effect and enforceability of “basis” clauses.
  

Private international law

• Numerous applications to challenge the jurisdiction of the English courts under the European Judgments Regulation (No. 44/2001) and the Lugano Convention. These include a Commercial Court action brought to enforce promissory notes with a value in excess of £100 million.
  
• Sinco v. Lloyd’s Syndicate 980 and others, Court of Appeal — appeal from judgment of Beatson J, [2008] EWHC 1842 (Comm)—lis alibi pendens and Articles 27, 28, and 30 of the Judgments Regulation—effect of damages claim for breach of jurisdiction clause — construction of Article 30 and meaning of “seising” a court.
  
• Advising as to the effect of the Rome II Regulation on choice of law in tort and the choice of law rules governing unlawful dispositions of property made abroad.
  
• Advising as to the international enforceability of arbitration awards under the New York Convention.
  

General commercial disputes

• A complex professional negligence action against a firm of solicitors, raising various issues of shipping law, including as to the effect of the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act 1992 and the “economic torts”.
  
• Advising on the enforceability of very substantial claims on promissory notes (in excess of £100 million) and the efficacy in English Law of signing a promissory note or bill of exchange “per aval”.
  
• Advisory and drafting work in relation to claims arising out of the explosion at the Buncefield oil depot, raising issues as to the tort of private nuisance, the actionability in tort law of public nuisances, and the recovery of "pure" economic losses.
  
• Advising and settling pleadings and submissions in FOSFA and GAFTA commodity arbitrations.
  
• Webster Thompson Ltd v. JG Pears (Newark) Ltd and others [2009] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 339 Commercial Court trial, March 2009, concerning the relationship between the Sale of Goods Act 1979 and Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982, and the nature and effect of the statutory implied terms on quality. Led by Simon Picken QC.
  
• Involvement as part of a team of counsel in a number of high-profile commercial cases, including:
  -  a dispute as to the legal status of “straight” bills of lading, eventually heard by the English courts as The Rafaela S [2005] 2 A.C. 423;
  -  The Front Comor [2007] 1 Lloyd’s Rep. 391 (House of Lords) on the availability of anti-suit injunctions in support of arbitration agreements;
  - Balmoral Group Ltd v. Borealis (UK) Ltd [2006] 2 Lloyd’s Rep. 629, a leading case on the seller’s obligations as to the quality of goods supplied under international sale contracts. 
  
• Providing expert testimony to foreign courts and tribunals on English Law.

 

Publications
Author of legal publications, including:

• Contributing editor to Jack on Documentary Credits (4th edition, 2009)
  
• “Liability for incorrectly clausing bills of lading” [2003] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 201
  
• “Fraudulent bills of lading and bankers’ commercial credits” [2003] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 1
  
• “Shipbrokers’ commission and arbitration clauses: the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 has its first outing to court” [2004] Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly 445
  
• “Lumbering assureds with difficulties when settling claims: ascertainment of loss and liability insurance” (2004) 98 Insurance & Reinsurance Law Briefing 5 (with Simon Picken QC)
  
• “Compensating Commercial Agents” [2006] Cambridge Law Journal 502
  
• “Anti-suit injunctions and international arbitration agreements” in a Corporate Guide to International Arbitration.

Extensive experience of undergraduate and postgraduate lecturing in Commercial Law, International Sales, the Law of Agency, and Tort Law. Editorial Committee of the Cambridge Law Journal (2003–2007).