by Jamesnkr » Mon Jun 12, 2017 11:07 am
A bit more legalese for you. Whatever you do, don't sell the pictures, but don't give them back until you have been paid. The following definitions may assist in reading the below.
Lien: a right to hold onto somebody else's goods
Bailor: your client/his executor
Bailee: you the picture framer
Lien: can the bailee keep the goods until the bailor pays?
A bailee who is entitled to a lien over the goods may retain possession of the goods pending payment of sums owed by the bailor. A bailee who is entitled to exercise a lien against the bailor commits no wrong against the latter by refusing to comply with a demand for delivery up.
A lien may arise by contract or by implication of law under express statutory provisions or in certain defined situations at common law, for example, the solicitors' lien over his client's papers pending payment. Broadly, whether a lien arises will depend upon the terms of the original transaction and the nature of the sums claimed by the bailee.
Ordinarily, a bailor who keeps a chattel to enforce a lien cannot recover either the cost of, or any contractual remuneration for, keeping it during the period of the lien. However, this general principle has been cast into some doubt following a decision on the carriage of goods by sea: Metall Markey OOO v Vitrio Shipping Co Ltd [2014] QB 760.
The bailee may assert a lien not only against the immediate bailor but also against a third party with a superior interest in the goods, where the intermediate bailor or bailee had actual or ostensible authority to create a lien binding on the third party (see, for example, Tappenden v Artus [1964] 2 QB 185).
The bailor must also face the fact that a bailee who performs work on his goods in a manner that improves them may have a lien over the goods, entitling the bailee to detain them until the bailee's proper charges are paid. For as long as the lien subsists, the bailee has not only possession but the immediate right of possession; the bailor retains property and has the deferred right of possession.
Sale: can the bailee sell the goods to pay its money claims?
A lien generally confers no right of sale on the bailee unless that right is conferred by contract or by statute. Accordingly, a bailee who detains goods pursuant to a lien may not in general sell the goods and take what is owed out of the proceeds of sale. In this respect, a lien differs from a pledge (a bailment for reward under which the bailor bails the goods as security for a debt or other obligation), for under a pledge a right of sale is automatically conferred on the bailee (pledgee) in the event of a default by the bailor (pledgor).
Likewise, contract or statute aside, the holder of a common law lien founded on his or her improvement of the goods has no right to sell the goods.
A bailee who wrongfully sells the bailor's goods will incur liability to the bailor for breach of contract, tort or breach of bailment (see below). A bailee with financial claims against the bailor must therefore pursue any available judicial or self-help remedies (including detaining the goods under the lien) but must not sell the goods.