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Navigating Your Lease Through a Sea of Liens
Equipment lenders and lessors face specialized issues when the asset is a vessel. How is the lender secured in its collateral? Can a lessor be secured in a vessel titled in lessor's name? How does a lessor perfect its security interest in the vessel? Where does the lessor stand in relation to competing creditors? This article addresses these questions within the U.S. legal system and describes proposed legislation to expand opportunities for lease financing of vessels.
Creditors who rely on vessels to secure debt must be concerned with the legal environment in which the vessels operate. For centuries, if not millennia, a vessel has been regarded as a separate legal entity apart from its owner. The vessel can incur debts and obligations independent of its owner. In the United States, when a supplier provides fuel (known as 'bunkers') to a vessel, the vessel itself is liable for payment. By operation of U.S. admiralty law, the supplier has a maritime lien against the vessel to secure payment. The same is true for repair yards, stevedores, the master and crew, and other providers of goods and services directly to the vessel. If the vessel causes harm, the injured party may have a maritime tort lien against the vessel to secure its claim. A maritime lien claimant may bring an action against the vessel without suing or even bringing a claim against the owner. Modern federal law has long incorporated, and often refined, these historic maritime lien concepts. Today they are reflected in the provisions of 46 U.S.C. Chapter 313 and an extensive body of U.S. case law.
Law Firms are Reducing Redundant Real Estate by Bringing Support Services Back to the Office
A trend analysis of the benefits and challenges of bringing back administrative, word processing and billing services to law offices.
Bit Parts
Summary Judgment Denied Defendant in Declaratory Action by Producer of To Kill a Mockingbird Broadway Play Seeking Amateur Theatrical Rights
Risks of “Baseball Arbitration” in Resolving Real Estate Disputes
“Baseball arbitration” refers to the process used in Major League Baseball in which if an eligible player's representative and the club ownership cannot reach a compensation agreement through negotiation, each party enters a final submission and during a formal hearing each side — player and management — presents its case and then the designated panel of arbitrators chooses one of the salary bids with no other result being allowed. This method has become increasingly popular even beyond the sport of baseball.
Disconnect Between In-House and Outside Counsel
'Disconnect Between In-House and Outside Counsel is a continuation of the discussion of client expectations and the disconnect that often occurs. And although the outside attorneys should be pursuing how inside-counsel actually think, inside counsel should make an effort to impart this information without waiting to be asked.
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough
There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.