Maritime Lien - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition maritime-lien

Definition :

Maritime lien, is well defined to mean a claim or privilege upon a thing to be carried into effect by legal process, that process to be a proceeding in rem ...... This claim or privilege travels with the thing into whosoever possession it may come. It is inchoate from the moment the claim or privilege attaches, and when carried into effect by legal process by a proceeding in rem, relates back to the period when it first attached, Bold Buccbugh, The (1852) 7 Moo PCC 267: (1843-60) All ER Rep 125.

A maritime lien is a claim which attaches to the res i.e., the ship, freight, or cargo. It may arise ex delicto, e.g., compensation for damage by collision, or ex contractu, for services rendered to the res; but it is strictly confined to services such as salvage, supply of necessaries to the ship, and seamen's wages, and the courts show no tendency to extend the privilege (see The Ripon City, 1897, P. 226). Thus for ordinary work done upon a ship, such as repairs, there will be no maritime lien, but there may be a possessory lien so long as possession is retained [Ex parte Willoughby, (1881) 16 Ch D 604]. The privilege when once it attaches will not be affected by any change in the possession of the res. See, further, The Henrich Bjorn, (1886) 11 App Cas 270; Foong Tai & Co. v. Buchheister & Co., 1908 AC 458.

A claim arising out of an agreement relating to the use and/or hire of the ship although a maritime claim would not be liable to be classified as maritime lien, Epoch Entercpots v. M.V. Won Fu, AIR 2003 SC 24 (29): (2003) 1 SCC 305.

There are two attributes to maritime lien: (a) a right to a part of the property in the res; and (b) a privileged claim upon a ship, aircraft or other maritime property in respect of services rendered to, or injury caused by that property. Maritime lien thus attaches to the property in the event the cause of action arises and remains attached. It is, however,inchoate and very little positive in value unless it is enforced by an action. It is a right which springs from general maritime law and is based on the concept as if the ship itself caused the harm, loss or damage to others or to their property and this must itself make good that loss, M.V. Al Quamar v. Tsavliris Salvage, AIR 2000 SC 2826 (2848): (2000) 8 SCC 278. [Contract Act (9 of 1872), s. 171]