Daphne Chua is a partner with the firm’s Shipping & International Trade practice group, with an active practice in both contentious and non-contentious work in the maritime industry. Daphne is Singapore and English law qualified, and fluent in both English and Mandarin (Chinese).
Daphne qualified and trained as a disputes lawyer with Rajah & Tann’s Shipping and International Trade practice group. She regularly represents clients in court and arbitration proceedings, and in resolving disputes without resorting to legal proceedings.
Between 2019 and 2021, Daphne joined the Singapore office of an International Group P&I Club where she looked after the P&I and FDD needs of the Club’s shipowner and operator membership in the region.
Daphne’s contentious practice encompasses wet and dry shipping disputes and trading disputes. Her experience in this respect includes disputes arising from collisions, allisions, oil spills, bills of lading, charterparties, crew injury/death, bunker contamination and commodity sale and purchase contracts.
On the non-contentious side, Daphne regularly assists traders and operators to review, revise and update their general terms and conditions of sale/carriage. She also assists clients with the review of sale contracts, transport agreements, charterparties and bespoke chartering terms; and the provision of advices relating to the conduct of business under the Electronic Transactions Act 2021.
EXPERIENCE
Shipping
- Acted for various shipowners in connection with onboard investigations, compensation payments and settlement arising from injury/death of the vessel’s crew (including Myanmar crew).
- Acted for Owners of a cruise ship in the defence of dependency claims arising from the death of a passenger on board.
- Acted for Owners of a VLCC in a mooring dispute when the vessel was struck by a Sumatran squall while alongside a terminal.
- Acted for Owners of a containership following a fire/explosion incident involving DG cargo on board the vessel.
- Acted for Charterers of a containership to obtain a ship inspection order from the Singapore court following a breakdown of the chartered vessel.
- Acting for claimants and defendants in limitation proceedings in Singapore, including CLC limitation proceedings.
- Successfully acted for charterers in arbitration proceedings against a shipowner arising from a loading dispute involving Argentinian river ports.
- Successfully represented a Chinese intermediate charterer in seeking recovery of outstanding hire from their immediate charterer and in enforcing lien over sub-freights from end-voyage charterers.
- Successfully acted for a palm oil trader and charterer in the arrest of a vessel arising from insolvent disponent owners’ breach of charterparty, and eventually obtaining a favourable level of recovery at just under 85%.
- Successfully acted for a trade finance bank to enforce a letter of indemnity for delivery of cargo in Egypt without presentation of original bills of lading.
- Successfully acted for a leading container line in obtaining a ship inspection order from the Singapore High Court.
- Successfully acted for a leading container line against cargo interests in a lis alibi pendens application.
- Successfully acted for bunker traders, container line operators, shipyards and other industry players in the arrest of vessels in Singapore and Malaysia.
- Acted for a bunker trader in a dispute with a trade finance bank arising from the use of set-off agreements with trading counterparties.
