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Whether owners entitled to exercise lien over cargo for unpaid hire

A dispute arose as a result of time-charterers having deducted sums in respect of hire and bunkers consumed during a period when the owners ordered the master to stop discharging because hire was overdue and unpaid. The owners said that they were exercising a right of lien on the cargo under clause 18 of the charter. The owners relied upon the decision of Donaldson J. in The Aegnoussiotis [1977] 1 Lloyd’s Rep. 268.