| U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Rhode Island | Nov 15, 1819
In favour of the party entitled to the fees of custody the court'will certainly upon his application order them in the first instance to be paid out of the proceeds in corut He has an equitable lien on them for his charges incurred about the property. But these fees are properly and ultimately chargeable against the claimant in cases of condemnation. — They are a necessary part of the costs incurred in consequence of the claim and are therefore to be taxed against him. As to the seamen’s wages; in the first place in an illegal voyage, like the present, no wages are payable, or can be recovered in any court of law, and the owner cannot by a voluntary payment put himself in a better situation than the seamen; and a fortiori in the present case where he is dux fraudis.. In the next place, supposing the seamen had a legal lien, that lien was discharged by the owner, and by paying his own debt, he cannot claim to be the assignee of that lien, or substitute a