Section 39
Lien for fares, rates and other charges
If, on demand made by or on behalf of a railway company, any person fails to pay any sum due to or recoverable by the railway company from him in respect of any goods, whether such sum is due for the conveyance, handling, storage, demurrage, or other charges, or in repayment of any sum disbursed by the railway company or any other sum howsoever arising, the railway company may detain the whole or any of the goods or, if such goods have been removed from the railway premises, any other goods of such person then being in or thereafter coming into the possession of the railway company.
(2)
When any goods have been detained under subsection (1)
the railway company may—
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Laws of Malaysia ACT 463
(a)
in the case of perishable goods, sell the same at once by public auction or private agreement as it may deem expedient; and
(b)
in the case of other goods, sell by public auction, on the expiration of at least fourteen days’ notice of the intended auction published in one or more of the local newspapers, such quantity of the goods as will be sufficient to recover the sum due to or recoverable by the railway company together with all expenses of such detention, notice and sale, including, in the case of animals, the expenses of the feeding, watering and tending thereof.
(3)
The railway company may, out of the proceeds of the sale, retain the amount of the sum and expenses due to or recoverable by the railway company, rendering the surplus, if any, of the proceeds and such of the goods as remain unsold to the person entitled thereto.
(4)
If the person entitled thereto fails to remove from the railway premises, within a reasonable time, any of the goods which have remained unsold, the railway company may sell the whole of such goods and shall, after deducting the expenses of the further detention and sale of such goods, render the surplus of the proceeds to the person entitled thereto.
(5)
The person entitled to remove the goods shall not do so unless he tenders to the railway company a sum equal to the costs, charges and expenses of the further detention of such goods from the date of the sale under subsection (2) to the date of removal.
(6)
Notwithstanding anything in this section, the railway company may recover by suit or action any such sum as is referred to in subsection (1).