Hale v. B., C. R. & N. R. Co.

13 F. 203
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1881
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 13 F. 203 (Hale v. B., C. R. & N. R. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hale v. B., C. R. & N. R. Co., 13 F. 203 (uscirct 1881).

Opinion

McCrary, C. J.

The complainants bring this suit for the purpose of establishing and enforcing a mechanic’s lien against the lines of railway now run and operated by the defendant, the Burlington, Cedar Eapids & Northern Eailway Company, the main line extending from Burlington, Iowa, to Postville, Iowa; the Pacific division extending from Vinton to Traer; the Muscatine division extending from Muscatine to Eiverside; and the Milwaukee extension from Linn to Postville. A lien is also claimed upon the rolling stock of said road, upon the right of way, road-bed, station-houses, car and engine-houses, machine-shops, and all property or things whatsoever belonging or in any way appertaining to said lines of railway. It appears in proof that the plaintiffs, who are iron merchants at Chicago, Illinois, during the -year 1873, and between the first of March and the last of December of said year, sold and delivered to the Burlington, Cedar Eapids & Minnesota Eailway Company, then owning and [204]*204■operating said lines, material for use in the construction and repair of its lines, or some of them, as shown by the bill set out as a part of the petition in this case; that in May, 1875, proceedings were commenced to foreclose certain mortgages upon the said Burlington, Cedar Bapids & Minnesota Bailway, and for the appointment of a receiver thereof.

In that case the complainants, Hale, Ayer & Co., filed their petition of intervention, wherein they prayed that the court would order the receiver of said railway to pay their said claim out of the earnings of said railway, but not claiming a mechanic’s lien.

Such proceedings were had in the foreclosure cases that at the October term, 1875, of this court a decree was rendered and the sale of the railway was ordered, subject, however, to the claims of parties who had intervened in the case, including the said Hale, Ayer & Co. Prom the said decree an appeal was prosecuted to the supreme court of the United States, where it was held that the intervenors (plaintiffs herein) were entitled to payment out of the earnings of the road of so much of their claim as was shown to be in the nature of supplies, but that for all that part which was for construction, they were not entitled to payment from such earnings. After the decree in the court below, and pending said appeal, these proceedings were instituted under the statute of Iowa for the purpose of enforcing a mechanic’s lien for so much of the claim as was for materials furnished for construction purposes.

At the time of furnishing the supplies in question, Hale, Ayer & Go. took the notes of the railway company for the amount due them, and also received as collateral security 20 of the bonds of the said railway company, secured by mortgage upon what was known as the Pacific division of said railroad.

At the sale under the decree of foreclosure the entire line of railroad was purchased by the defendant herein, the Burlington, Cedar Bapids & Northern Bailway Company.

Upon these facts several questions have been discussed by counsel, two of which only will be considered. These are—First, whether a mechanic’s lien was waived by taking collateral security; second, whether the defendant, the Burlington, Cedar Bapids & Northern Bailway Company, purchased the road with notice of the complainant’s claim of a mechanic’s lien.

A decision of the first question requires a construction of section 2129 of the Code of Iowa of 1873, which declares that “no person is entitled to a mechanic’s lien who takes collateral security on the same [205]*205contract.” This statute has been several times considered and construed by the supreme court of Iowa, whose ruling upon the question of its construction we are bound to follow. In several cases that court has held that the acceptance of promissory notes for work and labor performed or materials furnished in the erection of a building or other improvement will not divest the right of a party to a mechanic’s lien, unless such is the agreement of the parties. Bonsall v. Taylor, 5 Iowa, 546; Scott v. Ward, 4 G. Greene, 112.

The taking of notes is not the taking of collateral security.

It has also been held that where a party has done work or furnished materials in erecting a building under a contract with the owner,- he does not waive his lien upon such building by accepting the promise of a subsequent purchaser of the building, made in consideration of forbearance to sue, to pay for such work or materials. Mervin v. Sherman, 9 Iowa, 331.

The court in that case, per Wright, chief justice, defines the words “collateral security” to mean “either a separate obligation attached to the regular contract named, to guaranty its performance, or it may be the transfer of property or other contracts to insure the performance of the principal agreement; and in any event, the contract, promise, or property taken must have been intended and accepted as collateral security, before the lien could be said to be waived or defeated.”

The latest case upon the subject is that of Gilcrest v. Gottschalk, 39 Iowa, 311, where it is held that the acceptance of a mortgage for the same debt upon the same property covered by a mechanic’s lien is not the taking of collateral security, within the meaning of the statute, and will not divest a mechanic’s lien, unless the lienholder evinces the intention to rely upon the new security rather than upon the lien.

The rule to be deduced frofn these authorities is that the holder of a claim for labor or materials for a building, erection, or improvement upon land, does not waive his right to a mechanic’s lion by taking security upon the same contract and upon the same property, unless it appear affirmatively that it was his intention to look to such security, and not to his mechanic’s lien. If, therefore, in the present case it is made to appear, either that the security afforded by the 20 Pacific-division bonds was not upon the same property sought to be subjected to the mechanic’s lien, or that the complainants intended to and did rely upon the collateral security afforded by said bonds, in either case the mechanic’s lien is waived.

[206]*206There is testimony tending strongly to show that the complainants did intend to rely upon the security of said bonds; as, for example, the fact that they claimed under the bonds in the foreclosure suit, and received their proceeds in the form of stock in the new company under the decree of foreclosure. But, without dwelling upon this feature of the case, let us inquire whether the security taken was in fact upon the identical property which might have been held by the mechanic’s lien.

It appears in evidence that the 20 bonds here referred to were secured by mortgage upon only a part of the railway, to-wit: That part known and designated as the Pacific division, being one of four divisions into which the entire railway was divided, and on each of- which there was a separate mortgage. Now it does not appear upon what part of the lines the material furnished by complainants herein was used. It certainly cannot be claimed, under the evidence, that it was all used upon the Pacific division. No such claim is made.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
13 F. 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hale-v-b-c-r-n-r-co-uscirct-1881.