Beaupierre v. Julien Industrious (V.I. Terr. Ct. 1983)

Citation: 19 V.I. 424 (Terr. Ct. 1983) · Court: Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands, Division of St. Thomas and St. John (Civil No. 1079-1981) · Decided: June 30, 1983 · Opinion: Hodge, Presiding Judge

Source note (2026-10-18):

• Links on this page to https://static.case.law/vi/19/cases/0424-01.json are an (unofficial Caselaw Access Project copy, retrieved before 2026-10-18; host disallows automated access); no official or otherwise permitted full-text copy was located on 2026-10-18.

Case page. Legal information, not legal advice. Last verified: 2026-10-16. Source: Caselaw Access Project scan of Virgin Islands Reports (https://static.case.law/vi/19/cases/0424-01.json), retrieved 2026-10-16. Archer v. Ramsay Motors (21 V.I. 540) cites this case with a 1984 date; the reporter scan dates it June 30, 1983.

Facts

Augustus Beaupierre’s 1976 Buick (used as a part-time taxi, for his restaurant and for family transport) returned repeatedly to Julien Industrious’s repair shop for transmission work. After the fourth repair (USD 280.70) Beaupierre refused to pay, blaming prior faulty work, and demanded the car; the shop kept it. Beaupierre recovered it 28 days later through a demand for delivery of personal property. The shop counterclaimed for the bill and USD 10 per day storage. It never recorded a lien claim with the recorder of deeds.

Holding

The shop was liable for conversion (USD 700 rental and USD 300 lost taxi profits) and could not charge storage. Under 28 V.I.C. ch. 25, the § 581 right to “hold and retain possession” of repaired property “is not triggered until and unless the § 587 condition precedent is satisfied” — recording a verified claim in the recorder’s office of the judicial division “[w]ithin 30 days after the rendition of services.” “[O]ne who refuses delivery of a repaired vehicle for nonpayment of the repair bill does so at his own risk.”

Reasoning

• The opinion quotes § 581 (lien for labor or materials; the repairer “may hold and retain possession of the same until such charges shall be paid”) and § 587 (30-day verified recording) from the 1967 code.
• Enforcement is by court action if charges are unpaid three months after a timely recorded claim (§§ 583, 589); the lien lasts six months from recording unless an action is filed (§ 586); the repaired property may then be sold to satisfy the judgment (§ 592).
• Because the territorial statutory lien does not depend on possession, may be foreclosed and has a limited life, it is “a local law to the contrary of the common law,” displacing the common-law possessory lien (1 V.I.C. § 4).
• Owners can recover property through the demand-for-delivery procedure, 5 V.I.C. §§ 211–222.

Practical impact

In the Virgin Islands a garage, marina or other repairer does not get a self-help lien sale: it must record a verified claim within 30 days and then sue to enforce it, with any sale following the judgment. A buyer of a “lien-sale” vehicle from a repairer that skipped these steps holds nothing a court has authorized. Storage fees need contractual or legal authority.

Good-law status

Followed in archer-v-ramsay-motors-1985. No citator check run; whether 28 V.I.C. ch. 25 has been amended since 1967 was not verified because the V.I. Code could not be retrieved (needs_verification).

Applies in →

us-virgin-islands, towing-storage-and-mechanics-lien-sales, motor-vehicles