Bresnan v. Basic Electric Co.

721 S.W.2d 3, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4512
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedAugust 12, 1986
DocketNo. 50584
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 721 S.W.2d 3 (Bresnan v. Basic Electric Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bresnan v. Basic Electric Co., 721 S.W.2d 3, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4512 (Mo. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

SNYDER, Chief Judge.

The trustees of several employee trust funds, held for union electrician beneficiaries in the St. Louis metropolitan area, appeal from a judgment of the trial court denying the establishment of mechanic’s liens against the real property and improvements at the Drury Inn — Westport, a motel complex in St. Louis County.

The trustees of these employee benefit trust funds contend the trial court erred in its rulings that: (1) they have no basis to assert their claims for mechanic’s liens; and (2) they failed to comply with the provisions of § 429.080 RSMo. 1978. The trustees argue that: (1) they have an exclusive right to enforce the payment of fund contributions in behalf of the union electricians under federal law and the trust agreements; and (2) their lien statement did comply with § 429.080 RSMo. 1978 because the statement reasonably and substantially contained a just and true account of the demand due and that multiple lien claims were not accumulated. The judgment is affirmed.

The parties submitted the case to the trial court on stipulated facts and exhibits. Basic Electric Company, an electrical subcontractor, had a contract with Drury Development Corporation, the general contractor on the Drury Inn — Westport project, to provide electrical work on the motel complex under construction; Basic did not have a contract with the owner of the property where the project was built.

Basic also had a collective bargaining agreement with Local Union 1, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, obligating Basic to make contributions to certain employee benefit trust fund accounts at a specified rate for each hour Basic’s union electricians spent working on the project. The trust fund amounts were in addition to the wages paid directly to the union electricians and were calculated by applying the agreed upon hourly rates for each trust fund to the number of hours the electricians worked.

Basic employed several union electricians. During the months of March and April in 1983 the electricians furnished labor for the construction and erection of electrical improvements on the Drury Inn— Westport project. Although the electricians received the wages payable directly to them, Basic violated the collective bargaining agreement with the union employees by failing to make the required contributions to the employees’ trust funds. The trustees of the various funds filed a mechanic’s lien statement against the Drury Inn — Westport Plaza real property and improvements on behalf of the union electricians who worked on the project, seeking to impose a lien on the property for the amount of the unpaid trust contributions.

The mechanic’s lien statement filed by the appellant trustees reads in part:

... Trustees ... on behalf of the employees of Basic Electric Company, who are members of Local 2, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, and Kelvin Brown, James Duffy, Elmer Foerstel, Pat King, Jr., Ray Landwehr, William Harrison, Gary Mackay, Richard Niewoehner, Everett Simmons, R. Hennessy, D. Kossmann, D. Appelbaum, and B.R. Gipson, individuals who were employed by Basic Electric Company, and who were members of Local 1, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO ... file the account below set forth for labor furnished by employees who were members of Local 1, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, and employed by Basic Electric Company which ... was the electric subcontractor of Drury Construction Company and which performed electrical improvements ... on the following real estate [metes and bounds description of [5]*5real estate from St. Louis County Records] ...
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For furnishing labor for the construction and erection of electrical improvements located in the County of St. Louis, State of Missouri, and situated on the above-described real estate, furnished between the dates of on or about February 1, 1983, to on or about April 6, 1983, by employees who were members of Local 1, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO, and, pursuant to the terms of the Collective Bargaining Agreement between Basic Electric Company and Local 1, were entitled to the following unpaid benefits: [dollar amounts owed to each benefit fund]
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... [S]aid labor was furnished for and actually entered into the construction of said buildings, sheds, fences, sidewalks, appurtenances and improvements, and on which said date said account accrued and became due and payable. All of the items of said account were furnished under one arrangement and constituted one continuous running account. Each and every item of said account was furnished for said buildings, sheds, fences, sidewalks, appurtenances, and improvements and personal property actually entered into the construction of said buildings, sheds, fences, sidewalks, appurtenances and improvements.

The trial court entered judgment in favor of the trustees and against Basic for the amounts owed to the various trust funds but denied the mechanic’s lien claims because the trustees “neither performed any work or labor upon any building, erection or improvement on the subject real estate nor did any of the electricians through whom the [trustees] claim their rights assign any claims for mechanic’s liens to the [trustees].”

The court also held that, even if the trustees had a right to assert claims for the mechanic’s liens on behalf of each individual union electrician, the trustees failed to comply with the provisions of § 429.080 RSMo. 1978 because the trustees “have failed to include within their purported ‘just and true account’ an itemized account of the work that was done and the price that was charged for which a lien was sought and further have accumulated multiple lien claims into a single account statement”.

In a court-tried case upon a stipulation of facts, the only question for review by the appellate court is whether the trial court drew the proper legal conclusions from those facts. Miskimen v. Kansas City Star Co., 684 S.W.2d 394, 398 (Mo.App.1984). This court addresses only the legal consequences of the stipulated facts and submitted exhibits, id., and agrees with the trial court that the mechanic’s lien statement was deficient. It is unnecessary to decide whether the trustees have standing to enforce mechanic’s liens on behalf of the electrician beneficiaries who worked on the project or the issue of the propriety of accumulating multiple lien claims.

Section 429.080 RSMo. 1978 requires filing a statement of lien containing (1) “a just and true account of the demand due ... after all just credits have been given ..The requirement that a lien claimant file “a just and true account of the demand due” is a condition precedent to his right to a judgment establishing a mechanic’s lien in his favor upon the property. Zundel v. Edge, Inc., 705 S.W.2d 113, 114 (Mo.App.1986).

The requirement of a “just and true account” calls for “a fairly itemized account, showing what the materials are, and the work that was done, and the price charged.” Summit Lumber Co. v. Higginbotham, 586 S.W.2d 799, 801 (Mo.App.1979) (quoting Rude v. Mitchell, 97 Mo. 365, 373, 11 S.W. 225, 227 (1889)).

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Bluebook (online)
721 S.W.2d 3, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bresnan-v-basic-electric-co-moctapp-1986.