Page 90 - index

for, although a ship huilder has for a bona jide deht a pri-
vilege "r6elU upon his work, yet he may forfeit and lose
this privilegc hy his misconduet.
It has heen contended that this privilege of a ship buil-
der continiies after a sale hy the debtor, nnd until the ship
ha8 performed one uoynge; and to prove this assei.tion, the
Ordon~mncr de la !liot7ne oj Ili81 has been cited and relied
upon. and it has been sa.id that this Ordimnce was recei-
ved as Inw in the Court of Admiralty (in Canada.) before
the conquest.
But adniitting this tobe the fact:and that it was even
enregistered in the Souvereign Councilof Qiicbec, it is c1e:ir
that. it forrned no part ta the comman law of Canada,
and that it must have been recei~ed in the admiralty
as a part of the public law, in which case it was superse-
ded, as well by the tscit effect of the conquest, as by the
introduction of the law of the Admiralty jiirisdiction
of England, by the King's Commission of Vice-Admira1
to the Governor Miirray), in 1764, and the subsequent
estahlishm~nt of the Court of Vice-hdmirdty.
These points have been discussed and decided in this
court, and it followsthat the provisions of the Ordinance
de la Murive by which a ship, notwithstanding a transfer
by sale, continues hound and liable for thc payment of al1
dehts with which she waspreviously charged, until a voya-
ge has been complcted, have no bearing upon thequerition
before us, and that Baldwin's claim to a "privil6ge r8el"
upou the ship is no more than the claim of any other
creditor, entitled ta a particular lien upon movenhle pro-
perty, ship being moveables, (a) and as it is certain that,
creditors of thisdescription lose their privilcgc when they
relinquish the possession of the moveable iipon which it is
charged.
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(a) 1 Valiii Liv. 1 Tit. x art. 1.