Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/745

 THK CANADA. 733 �material men for necesBaries furnished to a vessel in her home port. And the lien thus created is declared to be "a right of property and not a mere matter of procedure," whieh may be enforced in the admiralty, under rule 12, as a lien given by the general maritime law. The Lottawana, 21 Wall. 679. And even coneeding that the court of New York has decided this state law to be void, it does not follow that this court must be governed by such decision. It is admitted that the national courts are bound, as a rule, to follow the decisions of the state courts in construing its statutes or determining their validity as compared with its organic law. But this is a case where the question of the validity of the state statute arises under the constitution and laws of the United States. The question is, therefore, a federal one, upon which the state court takes the law from the national one, and not the latter from the former. �There is no doubt, then, either upon reason or authority, that the libellants have a lien for their claim which may be enforced in this court as a right pertaining to a maritime contract by virtue of the local law. �The claimants next contend that if the libellants have a lien, it must be deferred to the lien of their mortgage, the registration of which is prior in point of time to that of the lien; and that, if this should be held otherwise, still the lien of the mortgage outranks that for the supplies, beoause it arises under a law of this forum-^the law of the United States providing for the registration of the mortgage, while the other arises under the law of another and foreign forum — ^the state of New York. �In support of the first proposition, counsel cite Scott's Case, 1 Abb. (U. S.) 336; The Kate Henchman, 7 Biss. 238; The Grace Greenwood, 2 Biss. 131; The Bradish Johnson, 3 Woods, 582 ; Aldrich v. ^tna, 8 Wall. 491 ; and section 4192, Eev. St. (9 St. 440,) which declares— �That no bill of sale, mortgage, hypothecation, or conveyance " of any United States vessel shall be valid against any person other than the grantor or mortgagor, his heirs and devisees, and persons having actual notice tUeieof ," \inles8 the "same is recorded in the office of the collector of customs where such vessel is registered and enrolled :" provided, that ��� �