Creditors’ ranking in auction
When a vessel is auctioned, creditors announce their claims to be satisfied from auction proceeds.
Under Greek law, there are four groups of privileged claims (maritime liens), which rank in priority
to naval mortgages and other non – privileged claims.
Lawyers’ fees accrued within the two years prior to the first auction date or the bankruptcy declaration
and derive from the rendering of purely legal services, are considered as falling within labour
claims, i.e. vested with maritime lien.
A lawyer challenged the ranking list in a vessel’s auction proceeds list of creditors, claiming legal
fees accrued for the auctioned vessel. He invoked an Italian Court Judgment which was awarding
him the amounts sought to be privileged.
However, although he listed the actions which gave rise to his claim, he failed to quote the amount
corresponding to each of them, and presented a total amount due. This way, the Court, which distinguished
his actions to pure legal and non – pure legal, the former being vested with maritime lien and
their corresponding fees being entitled to priority ranking, could not define which amounts were privileged
and which not.
Accordingly, the claim of the lawyer was rejected.
Piraeus One membered Court of Appeal Judgment no 834/ 2013, Judge: K. Oikonomou, Attorneys at
law: Ath. Charactiniotis, G. Prassos, Tr. Alykatoras, Maritime Law Review vol. 41, p. 308.
NOTE: Maritime liens are different in each jurisdiction. In the present case, it is interesting to note
the court document should itemise both actions done and corresponding fees; Failing to do the latter,
it deprived the Court from judging which amount corresponded to pure legal services and which not.
So, his claim could not be defined as privileged, partially or fully.