vendor's lien

A creature of equity, being a lien impliedly belonging to a vendor for the unpaid purchase price of land, where he has not taken any other lien or security beyond the personal obligation of the purchaser. An equitable security which arises from the fact that a vendee has received from his vendor property for which he has not paid the full consideration, and such lien exists independently of any express agreement. Causer v. Wilmoth, Mo.App., 142 S.W.2d 777, 779.

Also, a lien existing in the unpaid vendor of chattels, the same remaining in his hands, to the extent of the purchase price, where the sale was for cash, or on a term of credit which has expired, or on an agreement by which the seller is to retain possession.

In English and American law a vendor's lien is exceptional in character, and is an importation from the civil law, which found its recognition through courts of chancery, on the equitable principle that the person who had secured the estate of another ought not in conscience to be allowed to keep it and not pay full consideration money, and that to enforce that payment it was just that the vendor should have a lien upon the property