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I skip "million" because the question would be the same without. I intentionally don't quote judgement, because the book beneath doesn't say what the value of the vessel is now. But don't we need to know the value of the current vessel to calculate if it is worth repairing? How do we prove that regardless of the current cost of the vessel, the vessel not worth repair?

McKendrick. Contract Law: Text, Cases, and Materials (2018 8 ed). p. 795.

        In Attica Sea Carriers Corporation v. Ferrostaal Poseidon Bulk Reederei GmbH (The Puerto Buitrago) [1976] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 250 charterers chartered a vessel from shipowners for 17 months. After six months the vessel required substantial repairs. The cost of these repairs was some \$2 million. But the vessel was not worth repairing because, even when it was fully repaired, it would be worth only \$1 million. In these circumstances the charterers terminated the charter hire and re- delivered the vessel. The charterers admitted liability for \$400,000 of the repairs but the shipowners refused to accept the re- delivery of the vessel, contending that the charterers were liable under the contract to pay the hire until the repairs had been carried out. The Court of Appeal rejected the shipowner’s argument, holding that the obligation to repair the vessel was not a condition precedent to the entitlement of the charterer to redeliver the vessel. It was therefore not necessary for the Court of Appeal to decide whether or not the shipowners were entitled to recover the hire until such time as the repairs were done. But the court nevertheless gave brief consideration to the issue. It was held that White & Carter was distinguishable. Lord Denning MR expressed himself in characteristically robust terms.

I skip rest.

nyz
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  • No, why do you need to know that? – Rushabh Mehta Jan 15 '20 at 06:19
  • @DonThousand I don't understand what you mean. –  Jan 15 '20 at 07:36
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    I think this question is on topic for maths stackexchange and even possibly for quant stackexchange but is better asked on economics or money stackexchange. I'm thinking we need to know 1. How much an unrepaired vessel is worth, eg in terms of present value of expected future earnings or something, if this can be estimated 2. How much are the expected future earnings or something for the unrepaired vessel, if this can be estimated. I think both the present value and expected future earnings can be estimated since we somehow have an estimate of 1 million for repaired vessel. – BCLC Feb 01 '20 at 09:10
  • By "current vessel value", do you mean the value of the vessel in its current broken state? I would have thought that the text assumes the value of a broken vessel to be $0$ – but even if it has some residual positive value, we wouldn't need to know that value because the difference to $1$ million would be less than $2$ million. The only scenario in which the value of the broken vessel might be relevant is if it can be negative. E.g. if the broken vessel costs $1.5$ million to tow away, it would be worth $2$ million to then have a vessel worth $1$ million that doesn't need to be towed away. – joriki Feb 01 '20 at 11:38
  • Just buy a brand new vessel :) – nyz Feb 08 '20 at 06:49

1 Answers1

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In order for repairs to the boat to be worth it, the boat would have to be worth less than $-\$1,000,000$, which is no mean feat!

JMP
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