Priority

Precedence; going before. He who has the precedency in time has the advantage in right, is the maxim of the law; not that time, considered barely in itself, can make any such difference, but because, the whole power over a thing being secured to one person, this bars all others from obtaining a title to it afterwards; 1 Fonbl. Eq. 320. In the payment of debts, the United States is entitled to priority when the debtor is insolvent or dies and leaves an insolvent estate. The priority was declared to extend to cases in which the insolvent debtor had made a voluntary assignment of all his property, or in which his effects had been attached as an absconding or absent debtor, on which an act of legal bankruptcy had been committed; 1 Kent 243. Among common creditors, he who has the oldest lien has the preference, — it being a maxim both of law and equity, qui prior est tempore potior est jure; Berry v. Ins. Co., 2 Johns. Ch. (N. Y.) 608. See Insolvency. But in respect to privileged debts, arising ex contractu, existing against a ship or vessel under the general admiralty law, the order of priority is most generally that of the inverse order of their creation, — thus reversing the order of priority generally adopted in the courts of common law. The ground of this inversion of the rule is that the services performed at the latest hour are more efficacious in bringing the vessel and her freightage to their final destination. Each foregoing incumbrance is, therefore, 17 id.

421.

See Maritime Liens; Assets; Lien.