Lock Joint Pipe Co. v. Commonwealth

118 N.E.2d 869, 331 Mass. 346, 1954 Mass. LEXIS 515
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedApril 8, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 118 N.E.2d 869 (Lock Joint Pipe Co. v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lock Joint Pipe Co. v. Commonwealth, 118 N.E.2d 869, 331 Mass. 346, 1954 Mass. LEXIS 515 (Mass. 1954).

Opinion

Wilkins, J.

This is a petition to obtain the benefit of security given under G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 30, § 39, as appearing in St. 1935, c. 472, § 1. Under date of November 9, 1949, the respondent Demos Brothers General Contractors, Incorporated, hereinafter called Demos, entered into a contract with the Commonwealth, acting through the metropolitan district commission, for the installation of a pipe fine for the Hyde Park pumping station. Pursuant to c. 30, § 39, a bond was executed by Demos as principal and the respondent Peerless Casualty Company, hereinafter called Peerless, as surety. The bond, in the amount of $188,000, was delivered to the Commonwealth, the obligee. The bond was conditioned, in part, on the payment by Demos for all materials used or employed in the work of installation, and professed to be made “for the use and benefit of all persons, firms and corporations, who may furnish any material.”

On or about October 1, 1949, Demos and the petitioner, Lock Joint Pipe Company, hereinafter called Lock Joint, entered into a contract whereby Lock Joint agreed to furnish Demos approximately 10,050 linear feet (the estimated quantity required) of 24-inch prestressed concrete cylinder pipe, including fittings and other material, at $8 a linear foot of pipe with freight allowed to Boston. The contract contained the provision, “The terms are net the 15th of each month for all pipe and fittings shipped the previous month.” There was no discount provision. By letters dated July 10,1950, and July 13,1950, Demos ordered a small quantity of pipe and fittings which were in addition to the written contract, but were intended to be used, and after delivery were used, in the installation.

Lock Joint furnished materials which were used in the *348 construction of the pipe line and for much of which Demos failed to pay. The final decree ordered the Commonwealth to pay to Lock Joint $30,586.84 out of $69,591.97 held under the contract with Demos (assigned to Peerless by Demos) and ordered Peerless to pay to Lock Joint $4,992.69, with costs of $42.70, “under the obligation of its bond as said statutory security.” Peerless alone appealed. The judge filed a statement of findings and rulings, from which, unless otherwise stated, the facts herein are taken. The evidence is reported.

The sole question is whether Lock Joint seasonably filed a sworn statement of its claim as required by statute. The material part of G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 30, § 39, as appearing in St. 1935, c. 472, § 1, reads: “Officers . . . contracting in behalf of the commonwealth for the construction ... of . . . public works shall obtain sufficient security, by bond or otherwise, for payment by the contractor and sub-contractors for labor performed or furnished and for materials used or employed in such construction or repair . . . but in order to obtain the benefit of such security, the claimant shall file with such officers ... a sworn statement of his claim, within sixty days after the claimant ceases to perform labor or furnish labor, materials . . ..”

Commencing April 12, 1950, Lock Joint shipped to Demos the pipe, fittings, and other materials as agreed. A summary of shipments follows:

The last October shipment was received by Demos on or about October 23, and the pipe and other materials so re *349 ceived were actually used in the installation. The total pipe furnished was 10,115.4 linear feet, of which 9,988.8 linear feet were used in the installation, and 126.6 linear feet were not.

The contract price of all pipe, fittings, and materials furnished, was, less freight, $71,792.08, of which Demos paid $38,591.28, and did not pay $33,200.80. The contract price of what was used in the installation was, less freight, $70,751.89.

Sworn statements of claim were filed with the metropolitan district commission as follows:

The judge in his findings and rulings stated that the statement of claim of November 2, 1950, was seasonably filed within sixty days after Lock Joint ceased to furnish pipe, fittings, and other materials, which were actually used in the installation and were called for by the October 1, 1949, contract; and that the statement of claim of August 15, 1950, was seasonably filed within sixty days after Lock Joint ceased to furnish pipe, fittings, and other materials, which were actually used in the installation and were called for under the letters of July 10 and 13, 1950. The contract prices for which claim was seasonably made under these two statements of claim were respectively $70,212.49 2 and $403.72. Likewise, apparently on the theory that the contract might be treated as divisible, he stated that the state- *350 meats of claim filed were respectively within sixty days after delivery of materials on the dates indicated: claim of June 2, deliveries of April; claim of June 28, deliveries of April and June; claim of August 15, deliveries of July and August; claim of November 2, deliveries of September and October other than $90.68 for materials delivered on or about October 23, for which no sworn statement was filed.

On the evidence we find certain facts. The date on which the last work was done on the installation of the pipe line was December 10, 1950. On December 12, 1950, Lock Joint made a shipment of five gaskets and one pound of oil soap, at a total of $11.44, to Demos at its place of business in Springfield. These items were sent by railroad express collect, and no claim was filed on account of them. They could not have been incorporated in the installation.

On January 17, 1951, Lock Joint filed a claim for $43.64, covering wages and expense of a driver on a truck to deliver pipe shipped August 2, 1950, and reciting that the total of previous claims was $71,734.28, making a present total of $71,777.92, on account of which $45,451.58 was unpaid. On February 8, 1951, Lock Joint filed a claim in the same amount of $71,777.92, on account of which the smaller sum of $43,783.24 was unpaid.

The import of our cases is that the sworn statement of claim must be filed within sixty days after the claimant furnishes the last materials which become part of the installation. Kennebec Framing Co. v. Pickering, 142 Mass. 80, 82. Cook Borden & Co. Inc. v. Commonwealth, 293 Mass. 174, 179. In the present case the last shipment of pipe or materials which became part of the installation was received on October 23, 1950, and must have become part of the installation by December 10, 1950. That was when the work was finished, and Lock Joint furnished the only pipe for the job. In its brief Peerless asserts that Lock Joint “must show that all of the materials which it was obligated to supply under its contract with Demos were in fact used or employed by Demos and were incorporated into the *351 finished installation and became a part thereof.” If this is a contention that on a contract to furnish approximately 10,050 linear feet of pipe there can be no lien unless that many are incorporated in the installation even if there is room or need for a maximum of only 9,988.8 linear feet, such an assertion is without support in authority, is founded in neither common sense nor justice, and we reject it.

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Bluebook (online)
118 N.E.2d 869, 331 Mass. 346, 1954 Mass. LEXIS 515, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lock-joint-pipe-co-v-commonwealth-mass-1954.