DEMURRAGE

6 definitions found across Law Mind sources

DEMURRAGEAuthored
The Law Mind • 1222 words
Definition
Demurrage has two related but distinct legal meanings, both rooted in maritime and transportation law. 1. The detention itself. The act of detaining a vessel (or, in modern usage, other freight vehicles or containers) beyond the time allowed by the contract of carriage for loading, unloading, or departure. The time expressly allowed for these operations is called the lay days or laytime; any delay beyond that period constitutes demurrage. 2. The compensation owed. The sum payable to the shipowner or carrier by the charterer or freighter as remuneration for that detention. Demurrage in this sense is essentially liquidated damages for delay, typically calculated at a fixed daily rate specified in the charter-party. It continues to accrue for each day — or fraction of a day — that the vessel is held beyond the permitted laytime. In modern practice the term extends beyond oceangoing vessels to rail cars, trucking, and intermodal containers, where carriers charge demurrage or detention fees when equipment is not returned within the agreed free-time window. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): The detention of a ship or other freight vehicle during delayed loading or unloading; compensation paid for such detention. Wiktionary also notes a secondary financial sense: a charge associated with holding currency or bullion, and a type of currency that discourages hoarding by imposing a carrying fee. Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): The detention of a vessel by the freighter beyond the time allowed in her charter party for loading, unloading, or sailing; the allowance made to the master or owner of the ship for such delay. The common-language definitions track the core legal meaning closely enough that casual readers will grasp the shipping sense without distortion. The meaningful gap is the extension of the term into financial contexts — currency demurrage, bullion exchange charges — which has no foothold in legal doctrine and should not be imported into legal research. A researcher encountering "demurrage" in historical commercial records or contract disputes should assume the maritime or freight meaning unless the document is explicitly monetary in nature. ---
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES Contractual demurrage: The rate and duration are fixed in the charter-party. Once laytime expires, demurrage accrues automatically at the stipulated rate regardless of fault. Demurrage at will (or general demurrage): Where the charter-party names a rate but does not cap the number of demurrage days, the vessel may remain detained indefinitely at that rate — though in extreme cases courts have found a duty to dispatch on the shipowner's part. Rail and intermodal demurrage: Statutory and tariff-based regimes govern detention of freight cars and containers under carrier tariffs filed with applicable regulatory authorities, distinct from the contractual maritime framework. ---
Why It Matters in Research
The dual meaning — detention and compensation — is built into the historical sources and must be held in mind simultaneously. A clause that "allows three days for demurrage" grants permission to detain the vessel for three additional days at the agreed rate; it does not cap total liability at three days' pay unless the contract so specifies. Researchers reading charter-parties or historical freight litigation must parse which sense is operative in each clause. The boundary between lay days and demurrage days is a persistent litigation site. Historical sources assume that laytime is expressly stated; where a charter-party is silent, courts filled the gap with implied reasonable dispatch obligations, and the historical record is inconsistent about whether days of demurrage count against any cap or run open-endedly. Nineteenth-century American admiralty decisions diverged from contemporary English practice on this point, so jurisdiction of the court hearing a historical case matters. Modern extension to non-maritime freight creates a trap for researchers using historical sources. Pre-twentieth-century dictionaries define demurrage exclusively in maritime terms. Railroad demurrage — governed by Interstate Commerce Commission tariffs from the late nineteenth century onward — developed a parallel but partly distinct legal vocabulary. Container detention fees in intermodal shipping are newer still and are sometimes labeled "demurrage," sometimes "detention," with the two terms used inconsistently across carrier tariffs and regulatory decisions. Corpus researchers should also note the connection to the charter-party document itself. Demurrage clauses are rarely freestanding; they operate in conjunction with laytime clauses, notice of readiness requirements, and exceptions for weather working days. A demurrage dispute in the historical corpus almost always requires reading the charter-party as a whole. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries converge on the essential definition without meaningful disagreement. Bouvier emphasizes that demurrage can arise from detention for loading or unloading and notes it may accrue either before or during cargo operations — a clarification that matters when vessels are kept waiting at anchorage before a berth is available. Anderson adds the characterization of demurrage as "an extended freight or reward," framing it as supplemental compensation rather than a penalty, which reflects the dominant common-law view that demurrage clauses are liquidated damages provisions, not punitive in character. Both editions of Black's focus on the charter-party as the governing instrument and note that the sum may be either fixed by contract or "allowed" — pointing toward the older admiralty practice of judicially assessed demurrage in the absence of a stated contractual rate. This distinction (contractual versus assessed demurrage) largely collapsed as standard charter-party forms became universal in commercial shipping, but it surfaces in older admiralty opinions. Webster's 1913 adds the practical note that the claim for demurrage "ceases as soon as the ship is cleared out and ready for sailing" — a principle reflecting the legal rule that demurrage stops running when the vessel is again placed at the charterer's disposal for departure, regardless of whether loading is complete. This temporal boundary is underappreciated in historical sources and can be decisive in calculating damages. None of the historical dictionaries addresses rail, truck, or container demurrage, which emerged from statutory and regulatory frameworks outside the common-law maritime tradition. ---
Jurisdictional Note
Maritime demurrage disputes in the United States fall within federal admiralty jurisdiction, and federal courts applied admiralty law independently of state common law. English decisions were highly persuasive in American admiralty courts through the nineteenth century, but American courts sometimes diverged — particularly on whether weather exceptions and custom-of-the-port arguments could interrupt demurrage. Rail demurrage is governed by federal tariff and regulatory law and does not follow maritime doctrine. ---
Related Terms
Laytime (lay days) — the contractually permitted period for loading and unloading; the clock that demurrage follows Charter-party — the contract of carriage in which demurrage clauses appear Dispatch — the converse of demurrage; a reward payable to the charterer for completing operations early Detention — in intermodal shippinga related but technically distinct charge for holding carrier equipment off-terminal; often conflated with demurrage in modern tariff language Freight — the primary compensation for carriageof which demurrage is the supplemental component Notice of readiness — the formal tender that typically starts laytime runningtriggering the demurrage clock Liquidated damages — the contract law concept that frames demurrage clauses; demurrage is presumed to represent a pre-agreed estimate of the owner's lossnot a penalty Dead freight — compensation for cargo space contracted but not used; related context in charter-party disputes
DEMURRAGEmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
or at will; most commonly for years; a lease. | specifically described as a “representative de- 1 Steph. Comm. 475. mocracy. Originally a posthumous grant; commonly
DEMURRAGEmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
In maritime law. sum which is fixed by the contract of car- riage, or which is allowed, as remuneration
DEMURRAGEmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
The delay of a vessel by the freighter beyond the time allowed for loading, unloading, or sailing. Payment for such delay. The amount due by the freighter or char- terer to the owner of the vessel for such de- lay. 5 E. & B. 755; Abb. Adm. Dec. 548; 19 Fed. Rep. 144. Demurrage may become due either by the ship's detention for the purpose of loading or unloading the cargo, either before or dur- ing or after the voyage, or in waiting for convoy; 3 Kent 159; Abbott, Shipp. 192; Pars. Mar. Law; 26 N. Y. 85; 134 d. 143; 1 Holmes 290; 49 Fed. Rep. 107; 65 Hun 625; 1 C. C. A. 85; Porter, Bills of L. 356. Where neither the charter nor the bill of lading contained any provisions as to de- murrage, and the master made no formal protest against the delay, but signed the bill of lading without objection and did not bring suit until long after, demurrage could not be recovered; 1 C. C. A. 237. Under the terms of a charter where de- murrage was to be paid for each working day beyond the days allowed for loading, the time lost by reason of storms before the beginning of the lay days, or after their ex- piration, could not be deducted in comput- ing the demurrage: 2C. C. A. 656. The term "working days" in maritime affairs means calendar days, on which the law permits work to be done, and excludes Sundays and legal holidays, but not stormy days; 2 C. C. A. 650. But see 142 N. Y. 279, where it was held that Sundays are properly included in computing demurrage, when demurrage has begun to run. Where there are no agreed demurrage days for loading the case is one of implied contract to load with reasonable diligence; 74 Fed. Rep. 247. See LAY DAYS. DEMURRER (Lat. demorari, Old Fr. demorrer, to stay; to abide). In Pleading. An allegation, that, admitting the facts of the preceding pleading to be true, as stated by the party making it, he has yet shown no cause why the party demurring should be compelled by the court to proceed fur- ther. A declaration that the party demur- ring will go no further, because the other has shown nothing against him; 5 Mod. 232; Co. Litt. 71 b. It imports that the ob- jecting party will not proceed, but will wait the judgment of the court whether he is bound so to do; Co. Litt. 71b; Steph. Pl. 61; Pep. Pl, 11. In Equity. An allegation of a defend- ant, which, admitting the matters of fact alleged by the bill to be true, shows that as they are therein set forth they are insuffi- cient for the plaintiff to proceed upon or to oblige the defendant to answer; or that, for some reason apparent on the face of the bill, or on account of the omission of some mat- ter which ought to be contained therein, or for want of some circumstances which ought to be attendant thereon, the defend- ant ought not to be compelled to answer to the whole bill, or to some certain part thereof. Mitf. Eq. Pl. 107. On demurrer a bill must be taken as true, and matter in avoidance is not available; 57 Fed. Rep. 433. A demurrer may be either to the relief asked by the bill, or to both the relief and the discovery; 5 Johns. Ch. 184; 10 Paige, Ch. 210; but not to the discovery alone where it is merely incidental to the relief; 2 Bro. Ch. 123; 1 Y. & C. 197; 1 S. & S. 83. It is said by Langdell (Eq. Pl. 60) that every proper demurrer is to relief alone; and that while it always, if well taken, pro- tects the defendant from giving any discov ery, that is a legal consequence merely. As. to exceptions to avoid self-crimination, see 3 Johns. Ch. 407; 1 Hayw. 167; 2 H. & G. 382; 6 Day 361. If it goes to the whole of the relief, it generally defeats the discovery if successful; 2 Bro. Ch. 319; 3 Edw. Ch. 117; Saxt. 858; Walk. Ch. 35; 5 Metc. 525; otherwise, if to part only; Ad. Eq. 334; Story, Eq. Pl. § 545; 10 Paige, Ch. 210. It may be brought either to original or supplemental bills; and there are peculiar causes of demurrer in the different classes of supplemental bills; 2 Madd. 387; 4 Sim. 76; 3 Hare 476; 3 P. Wms. 284; 4 Paige, Ch. 259; 7 Johns. Ch. 250; 18 Pet. 6, 14; Story, Eq. Pl. § 611. Demurrers are general, where no partic- ular cause is assigned except the usual formulary that there is no equity in the bill, or special, where the particular defects are pointed out; Story, Eq. Pl. § 455; Dan. Ch. Pr. 586. General demurrers are used to point out defects of substance; special, to point out defects in form. "The terms have a different meaning in equity] from what they have at common law;" Langd Eq. Pl. 58. The defendant may demur to part of the bill; 2 Barb. Ch. 106; and plead or answer to the residue, or both plead and answer to separate parts thereof; 3 P. Wms. 80; € Johns. Ch. 214; 4 Wis. 54; taking care sc to apply them to different and distinct parts of the bill that each may be consist- ent with the others; 3 M. & C. 653; 1 Keen 389; 23 Miss. 304; Story, Eq. Pl. §442; but if it be to the whole bill, and a part be good, the demurrer must be overruled; 27 Miss. 419; 5 Ired. Eq. 86; 29 Me. 273; 12 Metc. 323; 36 W. Va. 582. If it i
DEMURRAGEn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
The detention of a vessel by the freighter beyond the time allowed in her charter party for loading, unloading, or sailing. The allowance made to the master or owner of the ship for such delay or detention. The claim for demurrage ceases as soon as the ship is cleared out and ready for sailing. M`Culloch.
demurragenoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
Wiktionary contributorsCC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.
the detention of a ship or other freight vehicle, during delayed loading or unloading | compensation paid for such detention | a charge made for exchanging currency for bullion | the cost associated with owning or holding currency over a given period | a type of currency which requires paying a fee to store money; a type of currency that discourages using money as a store of value

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