Walsh v. Placedo Shipping Corp.

A trustee in bankruptcy appeals a district court ruling that a shipowner’s charter lien upon subfreights earned by the charterer prevails against the trustee even though the lien was not perfected by filing as required by the California version of the Uniform Commercial Code. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.A. § 158(d) (West Supp.1985). We affirm.

Placedo Shipping Corporation chartered its ship to the debtor, Pacific Caribbean Shipping, Inc. A standard clause in the form agreement gave Placedo a lien upon subfreights earned by Pacific. Subfreights are money that the charterer of a ship…