Astoria Federal Mortgage Corp. v. Genesis Ltd. Partnership
Astoria Federal Mortgage Corp. v. Genesis Ltd. Partnership
Opinion
In this foreclosure action, the defendant Professional Services Group, Inc., 1 appeals from the trial court's judgment granting the motion filed by the plaintiff, Bellmore Partners, Inc., 2 to dismiss the defendant's cross claim. The defendant claims that the court erred by granting the plaintiff's motion to dismiss because it improperly concluded that the defendant lacked standing. We agree and accordingly reverse the judgment of the court.
The following procedural history is relevant to this appeal. On October 15, 2009, Astoria Federal Mortgage Corporation (Astoria) filed a four count complaint against Genesis Limited Partnership (Genesis) and the defendant, seeking, inter alia, foreclosure of two mortgages that Genesis had executed and delivered to Astoria for property located at 89 Minerva Street in Derby (Derby property). In the complaint, Astoria alleged that it was in possession of two notes that were secured by two mortgages on the Derby property: (1) a note dated May 14, 2004, wherein Genesis had promised to pay Astoria $210,000; and (2) a note dated June 20, 2005, wherein Genesis had promised to pay Astoria $165,000. Furthermore, Astoria acknowledged that the defendant maintained an encumbrance of record on the Derby property, which it alleged was subordinate in right to the claimed mortgages, "by virtue of a [m]echanic's [l]ien in the original principal amount of [$293,800] dated September 8, 2009, and recorded in volume 589 at page 253 of the Derby land records." On October 23, 2009, Astoria filed a motion for default against the defendant for its failure to appear, which the court denied on October 27, 2009. On December 10, 2009, Astoria filed a demand for disclosure of defense against the defendant.
On December 21, 2009, the defendant filed its disclosure of defense and its answer and special defense. In its disclosure of defense and as a special defense, the defendant asserted that it held a valid mechanic's lien on the Derby property, which was security for construction work on the Derby property that it had commenced on March 12, 2002, and which it alleged was a claim prior in right to the mortgages claimed by Astoria.
On July 19, 2010, Genesis filed a chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Connecticut.
During the pendency of Genesis' bankruptcy proceedings, the defendant, on August 13, 2011, assigned its mechanic's lien on the Derby property to Viking Acquisitions, LLC (Viking). On September 30, 2011, this assignment was recorded at volume 633, page 273 of the Derby land records.
On April 12, 2012, the Bankruptcy Court issued an "Order Regarding Limited Relief from the Automatic Stay," which stated the following: "The court having held a hearing on March 20, 2012, with respect to the motion for relief from stay filed by [the plaintiff] on January 10, 2011 ... and the motion for immediate order of relief from stay for violation of court ordered stipulations filed by [the plaintiff] on February 13, 2012 ... the parties having requested limited relief at the hearing to allow the parties to move forward with proceedings in Connecticut Superior Court as to the extent, validity, and priority of the mechanic's lien ... allegedly held by [the defendant] on [the Derby property]; and the court having determined that cause exists to grant limited relief from stay as requested by the parties, it is hereby
"Ordered that relief from the automatic stay is granted, for cause, pursuant to
"Ordered that relief from the automatic stay is also granted to allow the parties to proceed in Connecticut state court with any appeals from any decision of the Connecticut Superior Court as to the extent, validity, and priority of [the defendant's mechanic's lien] ...." 3
On April 18, 2012, Astoria moved to substitute the plaintiff in the foreclosure proceeding. The court granted Astoria's motion on May 14, 2012.
On September 20, 2012, the court granted the plaintiff's motion for a determination of priorities and ordered the following: "The court finds the priorities to be (1) the first mortgage dated May 14, 2004, and (2) the second mortgage dated June 20, 2006. No further determination is made." 4
On October 12, 2012, Viking assigned the defendant's mechanic's lien back to the defendant, but this assignment was not recorded in the Derby land records until June 26, 2014.
On March 18, 2014, the bankruptcy court dismissed Genesis' chapter 11 bankruptcy case.
On April 16, 2014, the defendant filed a cross claim against Genesis, in which it sought, inter alia, to foreclose the mechanic's lien that it held on the Derby property. In its cross claim, the defendant alleged that it had "furnished materials and rendered services to Genesis in the construction, raising, removal or repairs to the property owned by Genesis," and that it had "commenced to furnish materials and render services on or about March 12, 2002, and ceased furnishing materials and rendering services on August 20, 2009."
On June 17, 2014, the plaintiff filed a motion to dismiss the defendant's cross claim. In the motion, the plaintiff asserted that the defendant's cross claim should be dismissed because "[a]t the time the cross claim was filed, [the defendant] was not the holder of the [mechanic's] lien and therefore [did] not have standing to pursue foreclosure." In its memorandum of law in support of the motion, which was also filed on June 17, 2014, the plaintiff argued, inter alia, that the defendant did not have standing to foreclose its mechanic's lien on the Derby property because it had failed to record the October 12, 2012 assignment whereby Viking assigned the mechanic's lien back to the defendant. Therefore, the plaintiff argued, the defendant did not have standing because it was not the record holder of the lien on April 16, 2014, which was the date on which it filed its cross claim seeking foreclosure of the lien.
On July 15, 2014, the defendant filed its opposition to the plaintiff's motion to dismiss, wherein it argued that it did have standing to bring its cross claim against Genesis because the October 12, 2012 assignment was valid despite the defendant's failure to record the assignment prior to its commencement of the foreclosure action. The defendant also asserted that on June 26, 2014, it had recorded the October 12, 2012 assignment in volume 696, page 51 of the Derby land records. The defendant attached a copy of the recorded assignments to its opposition.
On October 14, 2014, the court held a hearing on the plaintiff's motion to dismiss. 5 On January 22, 2015, the court issued a memorandum of decision wherein it granted the plaintiff's motion to dismiss the defendant's cross claim. In its memorandum of decision, the court stated the following: "On April 16, 2014, the defendant ... filed a cross [claim] against codefendant Genesis ... seeking to foreclose a mechanic's lien, dated September 8, 2009, against Genesis....
"Prior thereto, [the defendant] assigned its mechanic's lien to Viking ... on August 13, 2011. On September [30], 2011, at 12:13 p.m., this assignment 6 was recorded at volume 633, page 273, of the Derby land records.
"Subsequently, on October 12, 2012, Viking ... assigned the same mechanic's lien back to [the defendant]. This second assignment was not recorded until 4:01 p.m. on June [26], 2014, at volume 696, page 51, of the Derby land records.
"[The plaintiff], successor to Astoria ... by virtue of a valid assignment of a note and mortgage, dated September 29, 2010, challenges the standing of [the defendant] to file the present cross claim. It argues that [the defendant] did not own or possess the mechanic's lien as [the defendant] had assigned its mechanic's lien to Viking ... and Viking ... was the owner of record of the mechanic's lien on April 16, 2014....
"Reference to General Statutes § 47-10(a) provides resolution of the issue of standing here. Section 47-10(a) provides in relevant part: 'No conveyance shall be effectual to hold any land against any other person but the grantor and his heirs, unless recorded on the records of the town in which the land lies....' The failure to record renders an assignee without standing to maintain an action against any party except the grantor and his heirs.... This court finds that the assignment of the mechanic's lien, dated October 12, 2012, but not recorded until June 26, 2014, was not effectual against any [party] except Viking ... and that [the defendant] did not have standing to file the April 16, 2014 cross claim.
"The motion of [the plaintiff] to dismiss the April 16, 2014 cross claim is granted." (Citation omitted; footnote in original.)
On February 11, 2015, the defendant filed a motion to reargue with respect to the plaintiff's motion to dismiss. The court denied the defendant's motion on the same date. This appeal followed.
We address the defendant's claim that the court erred in granting the plaintiff's motion to dismiss because it improperly concluded that the defendant lacked standing as a result of its failure to record, prior to filing its cross claim, the October 12, 2012 assignment of the mechanic's lien. The defendant makes two arguments with respect to this claim: (1) the court erred by improperly interpreting and applying § 47-10 to the unrecorded October 12, 2012 assignment of the mechanic's lien; and (2) the court erred by relying on other nonbinding trial court decisions. We reverse the court's judgment on the basis of the defendant's first argument. 7
We begin our analysis of this argument by setting forth the appropriate standard of review. "The standard of review for a court's decision on a motion to dismiss ... is well settled." (Internal quotation
marks omitted.)
Manning v. Feltman,
"Trial courts addressing motions to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction ... may encounter different situations, depending on the status of the record in the case.... Different rules and procedures will apply, depending on the state of the record at the time the motion is filed.
"When a trial court decides a jurisdictional question raised by a pretrial motion to dismiss on the basis of the complaint alone, it must consider the allegations of the complaint in their most favorable light.... In this regard, a court must take the facts to be those alleged in the complaint, including those facts necessarily implied from the allegations, construing them in a manner most favorable to the pleader....
"In contrast, if the complaint is supplemented by
undisputed facts
established by affidavits submitted in support of the motion to dismiss ... other types of undisputed evidence ... and/or public records of which judicial notice may be taken ... the trial court, in determining the jurisdictional issue, may consider these supplementary undisputed facts and need not conclusively presume the validity of the allegations of the complaint.... Rather, those allegations are tempered by the light shed on them by the [supplementary undisputed facts].... If affidavits and/or other evidence submitted in support of a defendant's motion to dismiss conclusively establish that jurisdiction is lacking, and the plaintiff fails to undermine this conclusion with counteraffidavits ... or other evidence, the trial court may dismiss the action without further proceedings.... If, however, the defendant submits either no
proof to rebut the plaintiff's jurisdictional allegations ... or only evidence that fails to call those allegations into question ... the plaintiff need not supply counteraffidavits or other evidence to support the complaint, but may rest on the jurisdictional allegations therein." (Citations omitted; emphasis in original; footnotes omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
Conboy v. State,
On appeal, the defendant argues that the court erred by concluding that it did not have standing to bring its cross claim against Genesis seeking foreclosure of the mechanic's lien that it held because, pursuant to § 47-10, it had not recorded the October 12, 2012 assignment of the lien at the time it filed its cross claim. Specifically, the defendant argues that the court erred in this regard because its conclusion did not harmonize the statutory requirements of § 47-10 with those of General Statutes §§ 49-10, 9 49-17, 10 and 49-33. 11 In opposition, the plaintiff argues that the court's conclusion was proper because § 47-10 applies to assignments of mechanic's liens, thereby requiring the defendant, as an assignee of such a lien, to record the October 12, 2012 assignment prior to seeking foreclosure of the lien in order to have standing. Because we conclude that noncompliance with the recording requirement of § 47-10 is not fatal to a party's standing to bring an action to foreclose a mechanic's lien, we therefore conclude that the court in the present case erred in its determination that the defendant lacked standing to bring its cross claim by virtue of its failure to record the October 12, 2012 assignment prior to filing its cross claim.
"[A] party must have standing to assert a claim in order for the court to
have subject matter jurisdiction over the claim.... Standing is the legal right to set judicial machinery in motion. One cannot rightfully invoke the jurisdiction of the court unless he has, in an individual or representative capacity, some real interest in the cause of action, or a legal or equitable right, title or interest in the subject matter of the controversy." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
People's United Bank v. Kudej,
The present appeal raises the issue of whether § 47-10, the Connecticut land transfer recordation statute, which generally applies to conveyances of land, applies to an assignment of a mechanic's lien, which is governed by § 49-33. In conducting this inquiry, we must employ relevant statutory construction principles. We note that
"[w]hen construing a statute, [o]ur fundamental objective is to ascertain and give effect to the apparent intent of the legislature.... [W]e seek to determine, in a reasoned manner, the meaning of the statutory language as applied to the facts of [the] case, including the question of whether the language actually does apply.... In seeking to determine that meaning ... [General Statutes § ] 1-2z directs us first to consider the text of the statute itself and its relationship to other statutes. If, after examining such text and considering such relationship, the meaning of [the] text is plain and unambiguous and does not yield absurd or unworkable results, extratextual evidence of the meaning of the statute shall not be considered." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
Dairyland Ins. Co. v. Mitchell,
"It is an accepted principle of statutory construction that, if possible, the component parts of a statute should be construed harmoniously in order to render an overall reasonable interpretation.... [T]he legislature is always presumed to have created a harmonious and consistent body of law.... [T]his tenet of statutory construction ... requires [an appellate court] to read statutes together when they relate to the same subject matter.... Accordingly, [i]n determining the meaning of a statute ... we look not only at the provision at issue, but also to the broader statutory scheme to ensure the coherency of our construction.... [T]he General Assembly is always presumed to know all the existing statutes and the effect that its action or non-action will have upon any one of them." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
Board of Education v. State Board of Education,
Section 47-10 provides in relevant part that "[n]o conveyance shall be effectual to hold any land against any other person but the grantor and his heirs, unless
recorded on the records of the town in which the land lies...." Given that the term "conveyance" is not statutorily defined, we may look to the commonly approved meaning of the term. See
O'Dell v. Kozee,
A mechanic's lien, also called a construction lien in some jurisdictions, "is a statutory lien on buildings and other improvements on realty, and on the realty itself, in favor of contractors, materialmen, and other classes of workers, as a security device to help ensure that those who improve real property receive payment even in the absence of a contractual relationship between the lien claimant and the owner of the property." (Footnotes omitted.) 53 Am.Jur.2d 88-89, Mechanic's Liens § 1 (2006). The statute that governs mechanic's liens in Connecticut is § 49-33, which provides in relevant part: "If any person has a claim for more than ten dollars for materials furnished or services rendered in the construction, raising, removal or repairs of any building or any of its appurtenances or in the improvement of any lot or in the site development or subdivision of any plot of land, and the claim is by virtue of an agreement with or by consent of the owner of the land upon which the building is being erected or has been erected or has been moved, or by consent of the owner of the lot being improved or by consent of the owner of the plot of land being improved or subdivided, or of some person having authority from or rightfully acting for the owner in procuring the labor or materials, the building, with the land on which it stands or the lot or in the event that the materials were furnished or services were rendered in the site development or subdivision of any plot of land, then the plot of land, is subject to the payment of the claim...." See footnote 11 of this opinion.
Section 49-33 "creates a statutory right in derogation of the common law ... [but] its provisions should be liberally construed in order to implement its remedial purpose of furnishing security for one who provides services or materials.... [A reviewing court's] interpretation, however, may not depart from reasonable compliance with the specific terms of the statute under the guise of a liberal construction.... [Moreover] the provisions of [the Connecticut] statute differ sufficiently from the mechanic's lien legislation of other states so that precedents elsewhere are of limited utility in the interpretation of [the Connecticut statute]." (Citations omitted; footnote omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
New England Savings Bank v. Meadow Lakes Realty Co.,
Against this background, we must decide whether the recording requirements set forth in § 47-10 apply to the assignment of a mechanic's lien. Specifically, we must decide whether an assignee of a mechanic's lien lacks standing to bring an action to foreclose the lien as a result of its failure, prior to bringing the foreclosure action, to record the assignment in the relevant town land records. In conducting this inquiry, we are guided by the statutory interpretation principle that "specific terms covering the given subject matter will prevail over general language of the same or another statute which might otherwise prove controlling.... The provisions of one statute which specifically focus on a particular problem will always, in the absence of express contrary legislative intent, be held to prevail over provisions of a different statute more general in its coverage." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
Housatonic Railroad Co. v. Commissioner of Revenue Services,
Our review of § 49-33, as well as other Connecticut statutes specifically governing mechanic's liens; see General Statutes §§ 49-34 through 49-47a ; and relevant case law pertaining to these statutes, reveals no requirement that the assignment of a mechanic's lien be recorded in order to confer standing upon an assignee of the lien to bring an action to foreclose it. With respect to the general issue concerning which parties typically have standing to enforce a mechanic's lien, our Supreme Court, in
Seaman v. Climate Control Corp.,
Subsection (i) of § 49-33 states that "[a]ny mechanic's lien may be foreclosed in the same manner as a mortgage." Our Supreme Court also has opined that "to the
extent the foreclosure of mortgages and mechanic's liens involve similar procedural steps, the law established in mortgage foreclosure actions also applies to mechanic's liens."
Handsome, Inc. v. Planning & Zoning Commission,
On the basis of our reading of the plain language of these statutes, and in accordance with the principle
that statutory provisions that focus on more specific topics should prevail over the requirements of statutes that are more general in their coverage; see
Housatonic Railroad Co. v. Commissioner of Revenue Services,
supra,
Section 49-17, titled "Foreclosure by owner of debt without legal title," provides in relevant part that "[w]hen any mortgage is foreclosed by the person entitled to receive the money secured thereby but to whom the legal title to the mortgaged premises has never been conveyed, the title to such premises shall, upon the expiration of the time limited for redemption and on failure of redemption, vest in him in the same manner and to the same extent
as such title would have vested in the mortgagee if he had foreclosed." "[Section] 49-17 codifies the well established common-law principle that the mortgage follows the note, pursuant to which only the rightful owner of the note has the right to enforce the mortgage.... Our legislature, by adopting § 49-17, created a statutory right for the rightful owner of a note to foreclose on real property regardless of whether the mortgage has been assigned to him." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)
JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Assn. v. Simoulidis,
We are aware that mechanic's liens are not completely analogous to mortgages insofar as, unlike mortgages, mechanic's liens typically are not separated into a note and a deed. Indeed, our Supreme Court has observed that there are "clear differences" between mortgages and mechanic's liens: "A mechanic's lien, unlike a mortgage, is not an agreement or contract between parties but rather a lien upon real estate which the plaintiff seeks to take by force of law and eventually to foreclose.... Unlike a mortgage deed, which may be reformed to reflect the contracting parties' mutual intent, the placement of a mechanic's lien is a unilateral act in which the lienor bears the burden of demonstrating statutory compliance." (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.)
First Constitution Bank v. Harbor Village Ltd. Partnership,
Although our research reveals no Connecticut appellate authority that directly supports the proposition that an assignee of a mechanic's lien need not record an otherwise validly assigned mechanic's lien in order to have standing to foreclose it, our conclusion is bolstered by this court's decision in
Connecticut Carpenters Benefit Funds v. Burkhard Hotel Partners II, LLC,
supra,
Moreover, this court's reasoning in
Connecticut Carpenters Benefit Funds
sheds light on the importance of permitting foreclosure of mechanic's liens in the interest of furnishing laborers with compensation for materials or services that they had provided for the subject property. See id., at 358-60,
This court further supported its conclusion that the employee benefits funds had standing to foreclose the mechanic's lien by referring to the reasoning of decisions from appellate courts in other jurisdictions, which had addressed similar standing issues involving mechanic's liens, and which had analyzed statutes that were similar in nature to the Connecticut mechanic's lien statutes insofar as they had to be liberally construed and they protected persons who provided labor or services. Id., at 359-60,
We iterate that the court in the present case was required to consider the allegations in the cross claim in their most favorable light and to indulge every presumption favoring jurisdiction. See
Manning v. Feltman,
supra,
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
The named defendant in this action, Genesis Limited Partnership, is not a party to the present appeal. Furthermore, David E. Paniccia was cited in as a defendant but also is not a party to this appeal. Therefore, in this opinion, we refer to Genesis Limited Partnership as Genesis and to Professional Services Group, Inc., as the defendant.
On May 14, 2012, Bellmore Partners, Inc., was substituted as the plaintiff in this foreclosure proceeding. Therefore, in this opinion, we refer to Bellmore Partners, Inc., as the plaintiff and to the original named plaintiff, Astoria Federal Mortgage Corporation, as Astoria.
"(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a petition filed under section 301, 302, or 303 of this title, or an application filed under section 5(a)(3) of the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970, operates as a stay, applicable to all entities of-
"(1) the commencement or continuation, including the issuance or employment of process, of a judicial, administrative, or other action or proceeding against the debtor that was or could have been commenced before the commencement of the case under this title, or to recover a claim against the debtor that arose before the commencement of the case under this title ...
"(4) any act to create, perfect, or enforce any lien against property of the estate;
"(5) any act to create, perfect, or enforce against property of the debtor any lien to the extent that such lien secures a claim that arose before the commencement of the case under this title;
"(6) any act to collect, assess, or recover a claim against the debtor that arose before the commencement of the case under this title ...
"(d) On request of a party in interest and after notice and a hearing, the court shall grant relief from the stay provided under subsection (a) of this section, such as by terminating, aning, modifying, or conditioning such stay-
"(1) for cause, including the lack of adequate protection of an interest in property of such party in interest...."
We note that this ruling determining priorities is not the subject of the present appeal.
At the hearing, counsel for the plaintiff urged the court to dismiss the defendant's cross claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction by virtue of the fact that it was not the holder of the mechanic's lien. Plaintiff's counsel further argued that, throughout the foreclosure proceedings and the bankruptcy proceedings that had occurred prior to the date of the hearing, the defendant effectively had represented that it was the holder of the mechanic's lien because it had participated in those proceedings. Plaintiff's counsel nevertheless argued that the defendant lacked standing to foreclose the lien because Viking was the holder of record of the lien at the time that the defendant filed its cross claim. In opposition, counsel for the defendant urged the court not to dismiss its cross claim because it was undisputed that Viking had reassigned the lien to the defendant prior to its filing of the cross claim. Counsel for the defendant also represented to the court that the plaintiff was not prejudiced by the defendant's failure to record the October, 2012 assignment of the mechanic's lien, that the defendant was the lien holder, that it had performed the work subject to the lien, and that it was the party which had an interest in its foreclosure.
"The court declines any comment regarding the legal sufficiency or validity of the assignments of the mechanic's lien herein-such as, for instance, whether the validating act, General Statutes § 47-36aa, cured any defects-as those are questions for another time."
Because we agree with the defendant's first argument and reverse the court's decision on this ground, we need not address the defendant's other argument. See
Ludgin v. McGowan,
We also exercise plenary review in this appeal because we must interpret and determine the applicability of statutes. See
Dairyland Ins. Co. v. Mitchell,
General Statutes § 49-10, entitled "Assignment of mortgage debt. Form of instrument. Requirements. Sufficient notice of assignment. Allocation of recording fees paid by a nominee of a mortgage. Operation of executed assignment," provides in relevant part: "(a) As used in this section, 'mortgage debt' means a debt or other obligation secured by mortgage, assignment of rent or assignment of interest in a lease.
"(b) Whenever any mortgage debt is assigned by an instrument in writing containing a sufficient description to identify the mortgage, assignment of rent or assignment of interest in a lease, given as security for the mortgage debt, and that assignment has been executed, attested and acknowledged in the manner prescribed by law for the execution, attestation and acknowledgement of deeds of land, the title held by virtue of the mortgage, assignment of rent or assignment of interest in a lease, shall vest in the assignee....
"(i) An assignment executed in accordance with this section shall operate to assign the interest of the assignor in the mortgage which is the subject of the assignment, even if such interest is, in fact, acquired by the assignor after executing such assignment or does not appear of record until after the execution of such assignment...."
General Statutes § 49-17, entitled "Foreclosure by owner of debt without legal title," provides: "When any mortgage is foreclosed by the person entitled to receive the money secured thereby but to whom the legal title to the mortgaged premises has never been conveyed, the title to such premises shall, upon the expiration of the time limited for redemption and on failure of redemption, vest in him in the same manner and to the same extent as such title would have vested in the mortgagee if he had foreclosed, provided the person so foreclosing shall forthwith cause the decree of foreclosure to be recorded in the land records in the town in which the land lies."
General Statutes § 49-33, entitled "Mechanic's lien. Precedence. Rights of subcontractors," provides in relevant part: "(a) If any person has a claim for more than ten dollars for materials furnished or services rendered in the construction, raising, removal or repairs of any building or any of its appurtenances or in the improvement of any lot or in the site development or subdivision of any plot of land, and the claim is by virtue of an agreement with or by consent of the owner of the land upon which the building is being erected or has been erected or has been moved, or by consent of the owner of the lot being improved or by consent of the owner of the plot of land being improved or subdivided, or of some person having authority from or rightfully acting for the owner in procuring the labor or materials, the building, with the land on which it stands or the lot or in the event that the materials were furnished or services were rendered in the site development or subdivision of any plot of land, then the plot of land, is subject to the payment of the claim.
"(b) The claim is a lien on the land, building and appurtenances or lot or in the event that the materials were furnished or services were rendered in the site development or subdivision of any plot of land, then on the plot of land and the claim takes precedence over any other encumbrance originating after the commencement of the services, or the furnishing of any such materials, subject to apportionment as provided in section 49-36.
"(c) If any such liens exist in favor of two or more persons for materials furnished or services rendered in connection with the same construction, raising, removal or repairs of any building or any of its appurtenances, or in the improvement of any lot, or in the site development or subdivision of any plot of land, no one of those persons shall have any priority over another except as hereinafter provided....
"(i) Any mechanic's lien may be foreclosed in the same manner as a mortgage."
In
Seaman v. Climate Control Corp.,
supra,
Although we find these statutes to be instructive, they are not controlling for purposes of our analysis. With respect to pertinent case law concerning foreclosure of mortgages, we acknowledge that the plaintiff argues that
Family Financial Services, Inc. v. Spencer,
supra,
In
First Constitution Bank v. Harbor Village Ltd. Partnership,
supra,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- ASTORIA FEDERAL MORTGAGE CORPORATION v. GENESIS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP Et Al.
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- 4 cases
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