Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 2.djvu/721

 714 FEDERAL REPORTER. �provide necessary funds to pay ship's disbursements liere, for which ship and owners are liable, I have valued upon you this day for £430, at sixty days' sight, in favor of D. S. Stet- son & Co., which please accept, for amount of which draft please insure the freight, loss payable to you, debiting pre- mium, as well as amount of draft and your commissions, to account of said ship and owners ; it being understood that for ail such amounts you have, besides the responsibility of the owners, a lien on the ship and freight, and the same are hypothecated to you accordingly, with power to you to collect freight if you choose. I shall make you a remittance from Oporto of the whole amount of my freight, less expenses, to be placed to the credit of my ship-owners as soon as I realize from my freight. The recourse to owners, and lien on ship and freight, given as above to Baring Bros. & Co., after acceptance, are to operate in favor of the holder of the bill before acceptance. �"Eespectfully, your obedient servant, S. P. Willeby. "P. S. My vessel is owned as follows: S. P. Willeby." The vessel was sold under a decree of the court, and the distribution of the proceeds referred to a commissioner, (Mor- ton P. Henry, Esq.,) who reported that as between the lien for supplies furnished in New York in 1878, and the liens for repairs in Philadelphia in 1879, the latter should have priority, under the principle established by the authorities that the last service advanced for the vessel's necessities takes precedence, and that liens of the same class should therefore be paid in the inverse order of the dates of their creation, except as to claims of material men, who concur- rently gave credit to the vessel in fitting her for a voyage, and who were, therefore, entitled to distribution pro rata. As between the various lien claimants for repairs made at Phil- adelphia in 1879, he reported that in accordance with the above principle they would be entitled to share j)ro rata, but that he felt himself bound by the decision in The Pathfinder, 4 Weekly Notes, 528, to award them priority in the order of the dates at which their respective libels were filed. The ����