Barnouw v. The S.S. Ozark

JOHN R. BROWN, Circuit Judge.

We deal again with the race for priority between a preferred maritime mortgage and a traditional maritime lien. This turns finally on whether an earlier mortgage was extinguished so that the subsequent mortgage must be deemed an entirely new and unrelated security subsequent in point of time to existing maritime liens. Two additional issues are presented concerning supremacy of a preferred maritime mortgage over a lien created by foreign law, and the status of claims for vacation, welfare and pension contributions as seamen’s wages giving rise to a superior…