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You take care of someone else’s horses.  Maybe they are boarded on your farm.  Maybe you train them.  The owner stops paying you.  What can you do?  This occurs all-to-often and the best way to protect yourself depends on your specific situation.

Any person who feeds or boards an animal under contract with the owner shall have an agister lien on such animal to secure payment for food and board furnished. The contract does not have to be in writing.  “Board” is defined as “to provide with regular meals or with regular meals and lodging.” Actual, physical possession of animals is a necessary precondition to having a valid lien upon the animals. Liens upon horses do not require specific filing with a designated agency or court.  Once there is a breach of contract, you have a valid lien.

How do you enforce the lien?  The lienholder must make a written demand to the owner to satisfy the lien.  The lienholder can then sell the animal at a public sale to satisfy such lien.  However, before the animal is offered for sale, the lienholder must give a ten day notice of the time and place of sale in a newspaper of general circulation in the county where food or board was furnished.  The day after the publication, the lienholder must mail a copy of the public notice to the owner by registered mail at the owner’s last known address.  If you do all of this, any extra money you make at the auction must be returned to the owner.  If there is a deficiency, the lienholder can get a deficiency judgment.  However, if the statutory requirements are not expressly followed, the lienholder loses the right to retain additional funds to cover a deficiency.

Many people will not enforce agister liens.  It is not cheap to keep horses.  Every day a horse is kept under a lien is another day the lienholder pays to take care of the horse.  The longer the horse stays in the lienholder’s care, the greater chance there is that the horse will get sick, or injured, or even die.  A lienholder can be held responsible to the owner for the health and safety of the animal, even if the owner has breached the contract.

Collecting on a valid lien through notice and public auction is not the only avenue for securing payment.  In many cases, it is just easier to give the horse back to the owner, then sue on other grounds, such as breach of contract.  Often a private civil suit can be filed in small claims court at a relatively low expense.  These judgments can be enforced.  One such method of enforcing a judgment is to garnish the debtor’s wages.

Boarders and trainer need to weigh their options.  An agister lien is not the best option for everyone and no two liens are identical.

If you have any questions about agister liens, or any other equine issues in Ohio, you should consider contacting an attorney at Graff & McGovern.  John Izzo of Graff & McGovern can be reached at 614-228-5800, extension 5, or johnizzo@grafflaw.com.