Hill v. Alliance Building Co.

60 N.W. 752, 6 S.D. 160, 1894 S.D. LEXIS 140
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 2, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 60 N.W. 752 (Hill v. Alliance Building Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hill v. Alliance Building Co., 60 N.W. 752, 6 S.D. 160, 1894 S.D. LEXIS 140 (S.D. 1894).

Opinion

Fuller, J.

As cbnsolidated at the trial in the court below, this is an action to determine the respective and relative rights of the plaintiff, as assignee of a mechanic’s claim and lien, and the defendants A. L. Dean & Co., Noyes Bros. &-Cutler, William Tolmie, and other defendants named in the title of the cause, each claiming to have a mechanic’s lien upon the real property described in the complaint, and also to adjudicate the rights of the defendant the Equitable Loan and Trust Company, a mortgagee, and the defendant and appellant, Walter N. Carroll, whose claim is based upon a certain quitclaim deed to the premises involved in this suit, executed to him by the defendant the Alliance Building Company, on the 12th day of November, 1891.

If, under the circumstances, the assignment of a mechanic’s lien and a claim secured thereby entitles the plaintiff to enforce the same by foreclosure, the complaint, which is in the usual form, states facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and appellant’s objection to the introduction of any evidence thereunder was properly overruled. The case was tried without a jury, and the court found, in effect and among other things, that the firm of Fraser & Shepherd furnished, under a contract with the defendant the Alliance Building Company, certain labor and materials, which were employed and used in the erection and construction of the buildings and improvements situated upon the premises in controversy, and that, after deducting all credits, there was due on said account the sum of §700, and that, within the time provided by law, said [166]*166Fraser and Shepherd filed a lien therefor, and, before the commencement of this suit, sold and assigned to this plaintiff all their claim, right, title and interest in and to said account and lien against the defendant the Alliance Building Company, and that plaintiff is now the owner thereof, no part of which has been paid or satisfied; that defendant A. L. Dean & Co. likewise performed labor and furnished material amounting in the aggregate to §200, for which a lien was duly filed; that the defendants Noyes Bros. & Cutler furnished’materials for the construction of the building upon the premises in controversy, of the reasonable value of §300, and duly filed alien therefor; that the defendant William Tolmie furnished labor and material amounting to §167.92, for which a lien was duly filed; that, after the commencement of the erection of the buildings and improvements upon the premises in controversy, the Alliance Building Company, made, executed, and delivered its promissory note for $12,000 to the Bank of Volga, and at the same time, and for the purpose of securing the payment of said note, executed and delivered to said bank a mortgage upon the premises described in the complaint, which was duly recorded and assigned and transferred to the defendant the Equitable Loan & Trust Company before the commencement of this suit, and that default has been made in the conditions of said mortgage; that afterwards, and on the 23d day of January, 1891, the defendant the Alliance Building Company borrowed from the Twin City National Bank of New Brighton §1,500, and on the 19th day of August, following, executed and delivered, as security for the payment of the above-mentioned amount, a mortgage upon the premises described in the complaint. The facts found by the court, of which but a brief conspectus appears in this statement of the case, concludes as follow’s: “That thereafter, on November 12, 1891, the defendant the Alliance Building Company made, executed, acknowledged, and delivered to defendant Walter N. Carroll its certain quitclaim deed of that date, in consideration of the payment of said notes by him, and [167]*167the satisfaction of said mortgage to be then and there executed by said Twin City National Bank of New Brighton. The said Alliance Building Company sold and conveyed said premises to said Walter N. Carroll, which deed was thereafter duly recorded in the office of the register of deeds for said Beadle county, on November 12, 1891, in Book 80 of Deeds, page 443, and defendant Walter N. Carroll is now the owner of said premises. ■ That said Walter N. Carroll, the .Twin City National Bank of New Brighton, the Bank of Volga, and the Equitable Loan & Trust Company knew at the time of the conveyance to each of them, as herein stated, of the construction of building, and the existence of the lien and claim of the lien, and the claim of lien of plaintiffs and defendants A. L. Dean & Co., Noyes Bros. & Cutlér, Waibel & Donaldson, William Tolmie, and Isaac H. Raven in and to said premises and claim herein.’’ As a conclusion of law, the court found, in effect, that the plaintiff and the several defendants relying upon liens were entitled to priority in the following order: W. S. Hill & Co., A. L. Dean & Co., Waibel & Donaldson, Noyes Bros. & Cutler, William Tolmie, Isaac H. Raven, the Equitable Loan & Trust Company — and, in case a surplus should arise from the sale of the property after paying the costs and claims above mentioned, it was found that the owner of said premises, at the’ time of such sale, was entitled to the same, and judgment was accordingly entered. This appeal is taken only from the judgment in favor of plaintiff and the defendants A. L. Dean & Co., Noyes Bros. & Cutler, William Tolmie, and the Equitable Loan and Trust Company, and from an order overruling a motion for a new trial.

Pursuing the order adopted by appellant’s counsel, the assignmtnts of error pertaining to the defendants W. S. Hill & Co. will first receive our attention. As fairly disclosed by the evidence, the Alliance Building Company, being indebted to the firm of Fraser & Shepherd for material used in and' about the erection and construction of the buildings situated upon the [168]*168premises in controversy, for the purpose of procuring an extension of the time of payment, executed on the 6th day of March, 1891, its promissory note, due 60 days after date, for $700, payable to the order of Fraser & Shepherd, by whom it was sold and assigned to the plaintiff herein, three days afcer the same was executed. It further appears from the evidence that after this note wras endorsed by Fraser & Shepherd, and transferred to the plaintiff, and on. the 18th day of the same month, Fraser & Shepherd filed the mechanic’s lien now under consideration, and, the day following, assigned the same to the plaintiff in this action.

The contention of counsel for plaintiff and respondent to the effect that the evidence fails to show that the note was negotiated prior to the filing of the lien is not sustained by the record. The witness Mr. Jonks testified, on the part of the plaintiff, W. S. Hill & Co., that be was, at the time of the assignment of the note, employed by Fraser & Shepherd in the capacity of bookkeeper, and that he was still so engaged; that he had charge of all bills receivable belonging to said firm, including the note in question; and that said note was assigned to W. S. Hill & Co. on the 9th day of March, 1891, as shown by the books in which he entered and kept an account of whatever disposition was made of any of the bills receivable belonging to said firm. Nathan T. Shepherd, of the firm of Fraser & Shepherd, was present at the trial, and was called as a witness by the plaintiff, W. S. Hill & Co. On the ground that the note was sold and assigned to W. S. Hill & Co.

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Bluebook (online)
60 N.W. 752, 6 S.D. 160, 1894 S.D. LEXIS 140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-v-alliance-building-co-sd-1894.