Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/747

 THB CANADA. 1B6 �mortgage (Aa vessel, or place the lien of it in any better condition mthiefeirence to other liens than it was before." And this is more evident when we consider that the object of the statute was uot to advanoe or prefer mortgages, but to protect the public against them, by requiring them to be xegistered in an appropriate and conyenient place. �Both the lien of the mortgage and the material man being the creatures of the law of New York, a,nd that having pro- yided that the lutter shall be preferred to ihe former, it ia in my judgment decisive of the question heare. The respect- ive rights of the parties arise under the laW of New York, and by that law the court must be governed in deciding upon them. But apart from the provision of the New York stat- ute preferring the lien of the material man to that of the mortgage, I thiuk it clear, upon general principles of law and right, that it is entitled to such preference. A mort- gagor in possession represents the mortgagee, and in con- tracting debts f or necessaries is, therefore, authorized tobind bis interest in the yessel for their payment, so far as the law gives a lien therefor. In this respect there is an im- plied ageucy between them. Necessaries supplied the vessel through the ogency of the mortgagor promote the interest of the, mortgagee aswell as the mortgagor, either by enabling the latter to nayigate her and thus earn money to pay the indebtednesa due the former, or to preserve her value as a -security therefor. ; �In the following cases the lien of the material man, though subsequent in point of time, was preferred to that of the mortgagee, either upon the authority of the local statute or the general maritime la^ : The John Farron, 14 Blatchf. 24; The William T. Graves, Id. 189; The Hiawatha, 5 Sawy. 160 ; The Island City, 1 Low. 375 ; The St. Joseph's, Brown's Adm. 202; The Norfolk e Union, 2 Hughes, 123; The Favor- ite, 3 Sawy. 406. �In The William T. Graves, supra, the question was whether a title acquired under the foreclosure of a mortgage on a ves- eel is subject to a lien for repairs put upon her subsequent to the date of the mortgage, and Johnson, G. J., in af&rming the ��� �