Is 'fixture notes' equal to 'charter party'?

[PhanThanhNhan]

Dear all,

I would like to have your opinions on this case:

L/C required bill of lading, and the document presented named bill of lading, showing carrier name but contained followings:
‘to be used with fixture notes # 101/HT-NH/2011
code name: ‘congenbill’
edition 1994
adopted by
The Baltic and international maritime council (BIMCO)’

Is ‘fixture notes’ equal to ‘charter party’ and is this document treated as ‘charter party bill of lading’?

[NigelHolt]

You might find Opinion R223 and more particularly Opinion 470/TA.635 of Sep 2007 of interest.

I incline to the view that unless the word ‘charter’ appears there are not any grounds for considering a BL as appearing to be subject to a charter party. Certainly ‘fixture notes’ is not a term I have come across in my 35 years in my bank and therefore it is not a term I believe one can expect a bank employee involved in doc credit operations to be familiar with.

[edited 2/1/2012 9:43:37 AM]

[DanielD]

A fixture note is a light contract of charter party that is one which contains a few pages instead of tens of pages.
Now is "fixture note" equals "charter party" as per the UCP? The issue has never been addressed.
To be on the safe side, the credit should allow the presentation of charter party bills of lading
Daniel

[GlennRansier_olsABN]

A difficult question. Based only on what you have sent it is probably a charter party BL. While I am not a maritime industry expert, fixture notes in the sense of the maritime versus the electric industry are I believe, the summary of negotiations and are an appendix to the charter party form/contract. However, I agree with Jeremy also, I would not expect an examiner to know this. It is outside of banking.

[PhanThanhNhan]

It would be easy if the LC allowed both ocean BL and charter party BL. Art. 22 says: C.P BL"containing an indication that it is subject to a charter party" but does not says "containing the word Charter party". So I just think if this BL refer to fixture note which is a kind of preliminary CP BL, does it mean that it is an indication of a charter party? Thus, it is a CP BL?

[polterd]

It is important to know if the b/l presented evidence the freight being payable as per charter party dated...(date indicated) or just indicate the freight (prepaid or collect) as required by the credit.
If no reference is made to a dated charter party, I think the b/l can be accepted as issued as per art.20 of UCP600.
Regards,
Bogdan

[PhanThanhNhan]

Dear Bogdan,
Sorry for not reply earlier. The BL only stp "Freight prepaid", and both pages of the BL donot mention the word "charter", instead it uses the word "fixture notes", a kind of preliminary charter party. I seached out that Fixture notes legally bind interested parties but there's no clearity for docs checking of a BL under fixture notes.