england-and-wales
If a car owner has a monthly credit account with a car workshop, then why wouldn&#39;t the garage have a lien on the car?
<p>This case matters to my husband and me, because we pay much money yearly to service our cars at auto shops!! 1. We have never heard of &quot;monthly credit account&quot; at vehicle workshops? How does this work?</p>
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<li>I don't understand footnote 49 quoted below. Why does Wilson's having a monthly credit account prevent the garage from having a lien on Wilson's car?</li>
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<blockquote>
<h2><em>Wilson v Lombank Ltd</em> [1963] 1 WLR 1294.</h2>
<p><strong>FACTS:</strong> Wilson bought a car from a person who turned out to be a rogue, and took it to a
garage for repairs. After the repairs were completed, the car was left on the forecourt of the
garage, but before Wilson could collect it, the garage permitted Lombank Ltd to remove the car.
The car had been stolen and Lombank honestly believed that it owned the car. Subsequently,
Lombank discovered that it did not own the car and so it delivered it to the true owner. Wilson
sued Lombank for trespass to goods. Trespass to goods requires the claimant to have had
possession of the goods and that the defendant interfered with that possession, so the issue
was: did Wilson have possession of the car?</p>
<p><strong>HELD:</strong> When Wilson left the car with the garage, he still retained possession of the car, since the
garage was holding it to his order at all times.<sup>49</sup> Consequently, Lombank was liable in trespass to
Wilson for the full value of the car, together with the cost of the repairs.</p>
<p><strong>COMMENT:</strong> This case illustrates two important points. First, Wilson was able to protect his
right to possession against Lombank, even though there was someone who had a better title
to the car than him. This reminds us that property rights are simply relative and a title which is
less than absolute is still protected by the law. Second, the law may treat a person as being in
possession even where the goods are physically controlled by someone else. In this case, Wilson
had what is called ‘constructive possession’, which is discussed later in this chapter.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p><sup>49</sup> Note that the garage did not have a lien on the car, since Wilson had a monthly credit account with it.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Lee Roach, <em>Commercial Law</em> 2019 3e, p 32.</p>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lien" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lien</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>A lien is a form of security interest granted over an item of property to secure the payment of a debt or performance of some other obligation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So the garage might have held a lien on Wilson's car as a way to secure a debt that he owed them, such as payment owed for repairs.  If so, it would have prevented Wilson from selling the car until the debt was paid.  It would also have made it a little less clear who was truly in possession of the car if the garage had a security interest in the car.</p>
<p>However, in this particular case, Wilson had a monthly credit account with the garage.  I would assume that means he had come to some arrangement with the garage where they would do the work without demanding payment on the spot, and that he would pay what he owed at the end of the month, or something like that; perhaps on terms like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_D" rel="nofollow noreferrer">net 30 days</a>.  They evidently trusted him enough to grant him <em>unsecured</em> credit, instead of demanding a lien on the car as security.  So the issue of a lien did not come up in determining possession.</p>
<p>This sort of arrangement would have been a lot more common in 1963, before credit cards were common, so I'm not surprised that your garage today doesn't offer it.  Nowadays the garage is more likely to demand payment as soon as the work is done, but you can get much the same effect by paying them with a credit card; then you will have about a month before you have to pay your credit card bill (or begin paying interest on it).</p>
