Charter party
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 237 U.S. 1 - United States v. Hvoslef · 1915Most cited · 299 citing opinions
A charter party may be a contract for the lease of the vessel, or for a special service to be rendered by the owner of the vessel. Where, as is very frequently the case, the shipowner undertakes to carry a cargo, to be provided by the charterer, on a designated voyage, the arrangement is, in contemplation of law, a mere contract of affreightment. By such a charter, the shipowner is the carrier of the goods transported by the ship, 'for the reason that the charter party is a mere covenant for the conveyance of the merchandise or the performance of the stipulated service.
How the Supreme Court has restated “Charter party”
Each Supreme Court definition of “Charter party,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Charter party”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “Charter party” — 698 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1832–1915
- ORIGINAL
A charter party, a contract by which the owner lets his vessel to another for freight, does not change its character because the parties happen to be merchants. It is still a special contract, whereby a compensation is stipulated for a service to be performed; and not an account concerning the trade of merchandise.
A charter-party is defined to be a contract by which an entire ship, or some principal part thereof, is let to a merchant for the conveyance of goods on a determined voyage to one or more places.
- 1859·63 U.S. 330 - Eber Ward Survivor Owner of the Steamboat Detroit v. Charles Thompson[p3]· cited 149×
a contract by which a ship, or some principal part thereof, is let to a merchant, for the conveyance of goods on a determined voyage to one or more places