Case Name: Thomas Ford v. Charles H. Clewell
Court: Delaware Superior Court
Jurisdiction: Delaware
Decision Date: 1890-02
Citations: 9 Houst. 179
Docket Number: 
Parties: Thomas Ford v. Charles H. Clewell.
Judges: 
Reporter: Delaware Reports
Volume: 14
Pages: 179–183

Head Matter:
Thomas Ford v. Charles H. Clewell.
landlord and Tenant—Chattel Mortgage—Lien.
The landlord’s right to have the proceeds of the sale of the personal property of his tenant applied to the rent is superior to the lien of a chattel mortgage which was given before the beginning of the tenancy and before the goods were moved onto the demised premises.
Comegys, C. J., dissenting.
(New Castle,
February, 1890.)
Petition to take money out of Court.
The defendant was tenant of the New Castle County Mutual Insurance Company. Before moving on the farm he gave a chattel mortgage to the plaintiff. Afterwards scire facias was issued on this mortgage, judgment recovered thereon, execution issued and sale made of the goods which were still on the premises and covered by the mortgage.
The New Castle County Mutual Insurance Company had the money paid into court and petitioned as landlord to take out so much of it as would satisfy the years rent, claiming that the rent should be preferred to the mortgage.
Alexander B. Cooper, for the petitioner :
The only question involved is whether the statutory lien of the landlord for the rent (in preference to “ any execution process ”) will be subordinated to the lien of a chattel mortgage given prior to the accuring of the rent, the goods remaining in possession of the mortgagor and upon the demised premises at the time of seizure by virtue of the execution.
Revised Statutes of 1874, 715-716.
The lien of the landlord is superior to that of the mortgage— the former being created by force and operation of law, and the latter by contract. The mortgage was an express and voluntary lien created by deed, to secure the performance of a contract. The landlord’s lien is a lien created by law to secure the performance of another contract, and of the two the landlord’s is the prior lien and cannot be displaced by the other.
A statutory lien is superior to a prior contract lien. A contract must be governed by the, law in existence at the time the contract is made.
At the time of this mortgage the mortgagee was bound to know that if the goods were left with the mortgagor and were removed by him onto demised premises they would be liable to the landlords lien.
Jone on Chattel Mortgages, Secs. 474, 475, 477, 556; Herman on Chattel Mortgages, page 308; Case v. Allen, 21 Kansas, 217; Williams v. Allsup, 100 E. C. L. R., 427. Scott v. Delahunt, 5 Lansing (N. Y.), 372; Donnell v. Starlight, 103 Mass., 227; Webb v. Sharp, 13 Wallace, 14; Beal v. White, 94 U. S., 382; Buch v. Payne, 52 Miss., 271; Pitkin v. Fletcher, 47 Iowa, 53.
In order to defeat the landlord’s lien under the Revised Statutes, pp. 715-716 there must be an actual levy, seizure or taking of the goods, by virtue of an execution process, prior to-the demise. The landlord will be preferred to any execution and levy after the tenancy began, although a lien existed prior thereto.
Shuster v. Robinson, 3 Harrington, 50.
A chattel mortgage is not an execution process, nor can it be likened thereto, for the purpose of giving it preference over the lien of the landlord. The possession and ownership remains with the mortgagor. The execution process is the levari facias.
J. H. Rodney, for the mortgagee.

Opinion:
The Court
held the lien of the landlord for rent to be superior to the lien of the chattel mortgage.