INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE UNIFICATION OF CERTAIN RULES OFLAW RELATING TO MARITIME LIENS AND MORTGAGES, 1926

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE UNIFICATION OF CERTAIN RULES OFLAW RELATING TO MARITIME LIENS AND MORTGAGES, 1926 Whole document Article 1 Mortgages, hypothecations, and other similar charges upon vessels, duly effected in accordance with the law of the Contracting State to which the vessel belongs, and registered in a public register either at the port of the vessel's registry or at a central office, shall be regarded as valid and respected in all the other contracting countries.

Article 2 The following give rise to maritime liens on a vessel, on the freight for the voyage during which the claim giving rise to the lien arises, and on the accessories of the vessel and freight accrued since the commencement of the voyage; (1) Law costs due to the State, and expenses incurred in the common interest of the creditors in order to preserve the vessel or to procure its sale and the distribution of the proceeds of sale; tonnage dues, light or harbour dues, and other public taxes and charges of the same character; pilotage dues; the cost of watching and preservation from the time of the entry of the vessel into the last port; (2) Claims arising out of the contract of engagement of the master, crew and other persons hired on board.

(3) Remuneration for assistance and salvage, and the contribution of the vessel in general average; (4) Indemnities for collision or other accident of navigation, as also for damage caused to works forming part of harbours, docks, and navigable ways; indemnities for personal injury to passengers or crew; indemnities for loss of or damage to cargo or baggage; (5) Claims resulting form contracts entered into or acts done by the master, acting within the scope of his authority away from the vessel's home port, where such contracts or acts are necessary for the preservation of the vessel or the continuation of its voyage, whether the master is or is not at the same time owner of the vessel, and whether the claim is his own or that of ship-chandlers, repairers, lenders, or other contractual creditors.

Article 3 The mortgages, hypothecations, and other charges on vessels referred to in Article 1 rank immediately after the secured claims referred to in the preceding Article.

National laws may grant a lien in respect of claims other than those referred to in the said last-mentioned Article, so, however, as not to modify the ranking of claims secured by mortgages, hypothecations, and other similar charges, or by the liens taking precedence thereof.

Article 4 The accessories of the vessel and the freight mentioned in Article 2 mean: (1) Compensation due to the owner for material damage sustained by the vessel and not repaired, or for loss of freight; (2) General average contributions due to the owner, in respect of material damage sustained by the vessel and not repaired, or in respect of loss of freight; (3) Remuneration due to the owner for assistance and salvage services rendered at any time before the end of the voyage, any sums allotted to the master or other persons in the service of the vessel being deducted.

The provision as to freight apply also to passage money, and, in the last resort, to the sums due under Article 4 of the Convention on the limitation of shipowners' liability.

Payments made or due to the owner on policies of insurance, as well as bounties, subventions, and other national subsidies are not deemed to be accessories of the vessel or of the freight.

Notwithstanding anything in the opening words of Article 2.(2), the lien in favour of persons in the service of the vessel extends, to the total amount of freight due for all voyages made during the subsistence of the same contract of engagement.

Article 5 Claims secured by a lien and relating to the same voyage rank in the order in which they are set out in Article 2. Claims included under any one heading share concurrently and rateably in the event of the fund available being insufficient to pay the claims in full.

The claims mentioned under Nos. 3 and 5 in that Article rank, in each of the two categories, in the inverse order of the dates on which they came into existence.

Claims arising from one and the same occurrence are deemed to have come into existence at the same time.

Article 6 Claims secured by a lien and attaching to the last voyage have priority over those attaching to previous voyage.

Provided that claims, arising on one and the same contract of engagement extending over several voyages, all rank with claims attaching to the last voyage.

Article 7 As regards the distribution of the sum resulting from the sale of the property subject to a lien, the creditors whose claims are secured by a lien have the right to put forward their claims in full, without any deduction on account of the rules relating to limitation of liability provided, however, that the sum apportioned to them may not exceed the sum due having regard to the said rules.

Article 8 Claims secured by a lien follow the vessel into whatever hands it may pass.

Article 9 The liens cease to exist, apart from other cases provided for by national laws, at the expiration of one year, and, in the case of liens for supplies mentioned in No.5 of Article 2, shall continue in force for not more than six months.

The periods for which the lien remains in force in the case of liens securing claims in respect of assistance and salvage run from the day when the services terminated, in the case of liens securing claims in respect of collision and other accidents and in respect of bodily injuries from the day when the damage was caused; in the case of liens for the loss of or damage or cargo or baggage from the day of the delivery of the cargo or baggage or from the day when they should have been delivered; for repairs and supplies and other cases mentioned in No.5 of Article 2 from the day the claim originated. In all the other cases the period runs from the enforceability of the claim.

The fact that any of the persons employed on board, mentioned in No. 2 of Article 2 has a right to any payment in advance or on account does not render his claim enforceable.

As respects the cases provided for in the national laws in which a lien is extinguished, a sale shall extinguish a lien only if accompanied by formalities of publicity which shall be laid down by the national laws.

These formalities shall include a notice given in such form and within such time as the national laws may prescribe to the authority charged with keeping the registers referred to in Article 1 of this Convention.

The grounds upon which the above periods may be interrupted are determined by the law of the court where the case is tried.

The High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves the right to provide by legislation in their respective countries, that the said periods shall be extended in cases where it has not been possible to arrest the vessel to which a lien attaches in the territorial waters of the state in which the claimant has his domicile or his principal place of business, provided that the extended period shall not exceed three years from the time when the claim originated.

Article 10 A lien on freight may be enforced so long as the freight is still due or the amount of the freight is still in the hands of the master or the agent of the owner. The same principle applies to a lien on accessories.

Article 11 Subject to the provisions of this Convention, liens established by the preceding provisions are subject to no formality and to no special condition of proof.

This provision does not affect the right of any State to maintain in the legislation provisions requiring the master of a vessel to fulfil special formalities in the case of certain loans raised on the security of the vessel, or in the case of the sale of its cargo.

Article 12 National laws must prescribe the nature and the form of documents to be carried on board the vessel in which entry must be made of the mortgages. hypothecations, and other charges referred to in Article 1; so, however, that the mortgagees requiring such entry in the said form be not held responsible for any omission, mistake, or delay in inscribing the same on the said documents.

Article 13 The foregoing provisions apply to vessels under the management of a person who operates them without owning them or to the principal charterer, except in cases where the owner has been dispossessed by an illegal act or where the claimant is not a bona fide claimant.

Article 14 The provisions of this Convention shall be applied in each Contracting State in cases in which the vessel to which the claim relates belongs to a Contracting State as well as in any other cases provided for by the national laws.

Nevertheless the principle formulated in the preceding paragraph does not affect the right of the Contracting States not to apply the provisions of this Convention in favour of the nationals of a non-contracting State.

Article 15 This Convention does not apply to vessels of war, nor to government vessels appropriated exclusively to the public service.

Article 16 Nothing in the foregoing provisions shall be deemed to affect in any way the competence of tribunals, modes of procedure or methods of execution authorized by the national law.

Article 17 After an interval of not more than two years from the day on which the Convention is signed, the Belgian Government shall place itself in communication with the Governments of the High Contracting Parties which have declared themselves prepared to ratify the Convention, with a view to deciding whether it shall be put into force. The ratifications shall be deposited at Brussels at a date to be fixed by agreement among the said Governments. The first deposit of ratifications shall be recorded in a process-verbal signed by the representatives of the powers which take part therein and by the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The subsequent deposits of ratifications shall be made by means of a written notification, addressed to the Belgian Government, and accompanied by the instrument of ratification.

A duly certified copy of the process-verbal relating to the first deposit of ratifications, of the notification referred to in the previous paragraph, and also of the instruments of ratification accompanying them, shall be immediately sent by the Belgian Government through the diplomatic channel to the powers who have signed this Convention or who have acceded to it. In the cases contemplated in the preceding paragraph the said Government shall inform them at the same time of the date on which it received the notification.

Article 18 Non-signatory States may acceded to the present Convention whether or not they have been represented at the international Conference at Brussels.

A State which desires to accede shall notify its intention in writing to the Belgian Government, forwarding to it the document of accession which shall be deposited in the archives of the said Government.

The Belgian Government shall immediately forward to all the states which have signed or acceded to the Convention a duly certified copy of the notification and of the act of accession, mentioning the date on which it received the notification.

Article 19 The High Contracting Parties may at the time of signature, ratification, or accession declare that their acceptance of the present Convention does not include any or all of the self-governing dominions, or of the colonies, overseas possession, protectorates, or territories under their sovereignty or authority, and they may subsequently accede separately on behalf of any self-governing dominion, colony, overseas possession, protectorate or territory excluded in their declaration, They may also denounce the Convention separately in accordance with its provision in respect of any self-governing dominion, or any colony, overseas possession, protectorate, or territory under their sovereignty or authority.

Article 20 The present Convention shall take effect, in the case of the states which have taken part in the first deposit of ratifications, one year after the date of the process-verbal recording such deposit. As respects the states which ratify subsequently or which accede and also in cases in which the convention is subsequently put into effect in accordance with Article 19, it shall take effect six months after the notifications specified in Article 17, $ 2, and Article 18, $ 2, have been received by the Belgian Government.

Article 21 In the event of one of the Contracting States wishing to denounce the present Convention, the denunciation shall be notified in writing to the Belgian Government, which shall immediately communicate a duly certified copy of the notification to all the other states informing them of the date on which it was received.

The denunciation shall only operate in respect of the state which made the notification and on the expiration of one year after the notification has reached the Belgian Government.

Article 22 Any one of the Contracting States shall have the right to call for a new conference with a view to considering possible amendments.

A state which would exercise this right should give one year advance notice of its intention to the other states through the Belgian Government which would make arrangements for convening the conference.

PROTOCOL OF SIGNATURE In proceeding to the signature of the International Convention for the unification of Certain rules relating to maritime liens and mortgages, the undersigned plenipotentiaries have adopted the present Protocol, which will have the same force and the same value as if the provisions were inserted in the text of the Convention to which it relates: I. It is understood that the legislation of each state remains free (1) to establish among the claims mentioned in No.1 of Article 2, a definite order of priority with a view to safeguarding the interests of the Treasury; (2) to confer on the authorities administering harbours, docks, lighthouses, and navigable ways, who have caused a wreck or other obstruction to navigation to be removed, or who are creditors in respect of harbour dues, or for damage caused by the fault of a vessel, the right, in case of non-payment, to detain the vessel, wreck, or other property, to sell the same, and to indemnify themselves out of the proceed in priority to other claimants, and (3) to determine the rank of the claimants for damages done to works otherwise than as stated in Article 5 and in Article 6.

II. There is no impairment of the provisions in the national laws of the Contracting States conferring a lien upon public insurance associations in respect of claims arising out of the insurance of the personnel of vessels.

Done at Brussels, in a single copy, April 10, 1926.