Lien clause

A lien clause gives the owner a contractual right to retain the cargo, and often the sub-freights, as security for sums the charterer owes: freight, deadfreight, demurrage, detention, or unpaid hire. It supplements the common-law possessory lien on cargo for freight, extending it to demurrage and hire that the common law would not secure. The owner exercises it by withholding delivery until payment, subject to the practical limits of holding cargo at the discharge port. A lien on sub-freights lets the owner intercept freight owed by a sub-charterer or shipper directly. GENCON 94 contains a standard lien clause covering these heads.