Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/180

 THB OITT OF TAWiS. 173 �tho home port — should rank claims of the second class, for towage services rendered in 1875. Claims of the same class are sometimes ordered put in the inverse order in which they accrue. This, I believe, is invariably observed in the case of bottomry bonds, the last being put first, and the first last. Maclachlan on Merchant Ship. 652. In some cases it is said that necessaries furnished for the last voyage should be paid in preference to those furnished for a former voyage, and the rule certainly seems a reasonable one as applied to long voy- ages upon the ocean, but wholly inapplicable to the daily or weekly trips made by vessels upon the lakes. I regard it, however, as a reasonable modification of the general practice that claims of equal rank should be paid pro rata; that each year should be considered as a voyage, and that claims ac- cruing the last year should be paid in preference to claims of the same rank accruing the year before, each season of navigation here being separàted from the preceding season by four months of inaction. This will encourage diligence in the prosecution of claims, and prevent the proceeds of sale from being absorbed by dilatory creditors. But I know ôf no authority or principle which would justify the court in order- ing a claim of an inferior rank to be paid prior to claims of a superior rank, on the ground that the latter claim accrued the year before the former, unless the defence of stale claim is pleaded to the libel. Maclachlan, 652. I think, there- f ore, the -first exception is not well taken. �The second exception is based upon the theory that claims for which libels were filed subsequent to the decree in the case of The Dry Dock Co. are preferred to its claim. Whila there are several authorities to the effect that a crediter who obtains a final decree before' another crediter, having a co- ordinate or equal claim, bas intervened to enforoe such claim, is entitled to be paid in preference to him who did not assert his right until after the entry of such decree, (see The Saracen, 2 W. Eob. 451 ; The America, 16 Law Eep. 264,) I knowof none which give such preference to a creditor hold- ijig a claim of an inferior class, notwithstanding he maj havo ����