United States Savings, Loan & Building Co. v. Jones
United States Savings, Loan & Building Co. v. Jones
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
— Separate actions were brought against the property in controversy herein, one being by the United States Savings, Loan and Building Company to foreclose a mortgage thereon, and one each by the Bairhaven Land Company and Underwood & Minturn, to foreclose liens for materials furnished for the construction of a building thereon. The latter also included a claim for labor. The Loan and Building Company appeals from the decree ren
A motion is made by the respondent, the Fairhaven Land Company, to strike the statement of facts on the ground that the statement served upon them did not contain much of the matter included therein as returned to this court; the contention being that it only embraced so much of the record as is contained between pages 93 and 145 of the record, and that all of the remaining portions included between pages 1 to 93 and 145 to 210 were added thereafter, more than sixty days after the entry of the decree and more than thirty days subsequent to the service upon respondent of the notice of filing the proposed statement of facts. It appears, however, that the first 93 pages of the record consist of the pleadings, journal entries and part of the report of the referee, and the remaining part, which was added, contains the evidence embraced in the case made by Underwood & Minturn. All the evidence relating to the respondent’s case is set forth in that part of the statement which was served. A certificate, regular in form, to the effect that the statement contains all the material facts, is appended to the statement and signed by the judge; and this certificate recites that the respondent was present at the time of the settlement; and were it not for the fact that the parties had stipulated that the parts aforesaid were added to the statement against the objection of the respondent, the respondent would be precluded from raising the question in consequence of the certificate’s not showing any objection at the time the statement was settled. However, we are of the opinion that the motion should be denied, as under the former appeal law, which was in force when these appeals were taken, the clerk was required to send up all of this addi
The appeal of the United States Savings, Loan and Building Company will be first considered. It is contended that the claim of the Fairhaven Land Company to a lien was insufficient in that there is no sufficient statement of the terms and conditions of the contract or of the material furnished in the lien notice. The part of said lien notice covering this point reads as follows:
“That on or about the 15th day of April, 1891, the claimant above named, the Fairhaven Land Company, made and entered into a contract with Mrs. Emma Jones, through her husband and agent Reginald Jones, he being the person having charge of the construction, erection and completion of the said Silver Beach hotel building, by the terms of which the claimant agreed to furnish the lumber material to be used in the construction, erection and completion of said Silver Beach hotel, for the contract and agreed price of §567.30, and also agreed to furnish the lumber material to be used in the completion of the wind mill and water tank above described for the agreed price of §4.50, and that said Emma Jones, by her husband and agent, Reginald Jones, promised to pay said amounts when said material was furnished and on or before July 20, 1891, to said Fairhaven Land Company.”
The respondent contends that this lien notice should be sustained on the ground that it is a claim for all the lumber material “to be used in the erection, construction and completion of said Silver Beach hotel;” and it might be
The claim of Underwood & Minturn was disallowed on the ground that the lien notice filed by them was defective. The parts thereof in l’elation thereto are as follows :
“3. On April 10, 1891, Reginald Jones, as one of the reputed owners and as agent of the other owner of the land, and as the person in charge of the construction of the building, entered into a contract with the lienors ‘to furnish such material as should be ordered by said agent and such labor as should be necessary to build into said building*439 such material as should be required so far as the lienors should be able to furnish the same.’
‘ ‘ 4. Pursuant to the contract the lienors did furnish to said Jones to be used in the construction of the building certain materials and labor as one continuous running account and as ordered by him, which was reasonably worth $1,789.27, of which only $172.99 has been paid in cash and $76.64 in goods returned.”
No attempt was made in this notice to describe the kind of material furnished, or to segregate the amount claimed for the material from the amount claimed for labor. It is urged by the appellant that this lien notice was good and should be sustained on the ground that it was founded upon a contract entered into between the claimants and the owner of the property, and the same argument is urged by the Fairhaven Land Company in support of its lien. Notices substantially like these have been held invalid by this court in cases where the lien was founded upon a contract entered into between the claimant and a ‘ ‘ contractor ” for the erection of the building. It is claimed that a more liberal rule should obtain when the contract is made by the owner of the premises, as the owner in such cases has actual knowledge of the claim. But the statute does not make the right to a lien rest upon the owner’s knowledge of the contract or of what was done under it. The lien notice must be filed within the time specified, containing a statement of the demand and¿a statement of the terms and conditions of the contract. We have held that a statement of the demand requires something more than a statement of the amount claimed. If the right to a lien could be maintained because the owner had knowledge of the purchase of the materials in question, and of the furnishing of the labor, in consequence of having made the contract therefor, it might as well be sustained where the contract for the materials is made by a contractor, for the erection of the building, if the owner of the premises had knowl
We are aware that in passing upon the sufficiency of lien notices in this respect we have heretofore in some cases discussed the same from the standpoint of furnishing knowledge to the owner of the premises in cases where the contract was made by the contractor for the erection of the building with a sub-contractor. This is the first time the
So far as we are advised no court has gone to the extent of holding that the filing of the notice can be dispensed with. The right to a lien of this kind is a statutory one, and the legislature has prescribed the conditions therefor in the statute, one of which is that a notice must be given, and it Avould seem as though the same construction Avith reference to such notice must apply in all cases, regardless of the actual knowledge of the owner of the premises.
It follows that the judgment of the lower court establishing the lien claim of the Fairhaven Land Company should be reversed, and affirmed as to the disallowance of the claim of Underwood & Minturn.
Stiles and Anders, JJ., concur.
Dissenting Opinion
— I dissent from the conclusions as to the motion to dismiss, but concur as to the merits.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.