Okmulgee Plumbing Co. v. Comstock

1926 OK 574, 257 P. 320, 125 Okla. 245, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 20
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 22, 1926
Docket16259
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1926 OK 574 (Okmulgee Plumbing Co. v. Comstock) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Okmulgee Plumbing Co. v. Comstock, 1926 OK 574, 257 P. 320, 125 Okla. 245, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 20 (Okla. 1926).

Opinion

Opinion by

PINKHAM, C.

This suit was instituted in the superior co-urt of Okmulgee county by H. E. Ketcham, one of the defendants in error, as plaintiff, against T. Manning, A, B. Comstock, and others, for the purpose of foreclosing a materialman’s lien upon certain property described as “lot 11, Dei'riek and Walker addition to the city of Okrnu1 gee, Oklahoma. ”

The facts disclosed by the record, briefly stated, are as follows: On or about the 4th day of August, 1923, the defendant A. B. Comstock made an'arrangement with the defendant T. Manning, whereby he, Comstock, agreed to sell "he caid lot. of which he was *246 the owner, to the defendant Manning, and a deed was executed at ox about that time by Comstock to Manning conveying the lot in question for the purchase price of $600. The deed was placed in escrow in the hands of a real estate.agent to be.held by him until the money was paid. The record does not disclose what became of the deed except that it is not of record, and there was no proof that Manning ever paid anything on it.

About the time of this transaction between the defendant Comstock and the defendant Manning, Manning, desiring to build a residence upon said lot, went to the plaintiff Ketcham, a lumber dealer, to make arrangements to purchase the lumber and ocher'material with which to erect a dwelling house thereon.

It appears that the plaintiff Ketcham required the defendant Comstock to sign an inscrument which authorized the plaintiff Ketcham to furnish to T. Manning all lumber and such other building material as lie might need in the erection of the building on the lot in question, and charge the same to the defendant' Manning, and against the lot therein described, and chat Comstock waived his claim as owner of the lot, and that the plaintiff Ketcham’s claim for said material should be a first charge against the said lot.

After this arrangement was made, Manning employed the other defendants herein co perform labor and to furnish other material and building supplies in erecting the house upon the lot in question, but without securing the consent or permission from the owner of the lot, Comstock.

The defendant Manning failed to pay for any materials or lumber furnished and labor performed on said lot, and the plain cil'f Ketcham filed his lien on the real estate, including the building which Manning had erected on the said lot, and the other defendants, the plaintiffs in error here, filed their respective liens upen the building separate from the real escate.

Upon the trial of the case all the claims were placed in judgment, and the various liens sustained, and the cause was continued for the purpose of establishing the priority of liens.

Thereafter, on the 1st day of October, 1924, the court entered a judgment in favor of the defendant A. B. Comstock and against the defendant T. Manning, for the sum of $600, together with interest thereon at the rate of 6 per cent, from the 6th day of August, 1923, and that defendant A. B. Com-stock have a lien for the sum of $600, with interest thereon- as aforesaid, subject and inferior, however, to the lien of said plaintiff Ketcham against the property involved in the action, and that unless the claim of the defendant Comstock is paid within five days from the data of judgment said lien be foreclosed and' the property sold subject to the lien and claim of the plaintiff Ketcham; and, further, that each of the other defendants and interveners' have and recover judgment against the defendant Manning, in the amounfs prayed for in their various petitions, and each of them have a lien co-equal with each other against the property involved in the action, and that each of said liens are subject and inferior to the lien and claim of plaintiff Ketcham and the lien of defendant Comstock.

A motion for a new trial was filled on behalf of the lien claimants, who were remitted to the third lien, which motion was .overruled, exceptions reserved, and an appeal taken to this court.

The only question presented to this court for determination is the action of the trial court in fixing the priority of the several liens. The argument is that it was the intention of the Legislature in the passage of the 1923 Act ('Session Laws of 1923, c. 54} to create a lien for ilaborers and material-men upon the buildings and improvements separately from the real estate, when title was not in the person with whom the contract was made; and it is contended there is nothing in the 1923 law which requires the consent, oral or written, of the owner of the land before .such a lien attaches to the improvements.

•Section 7461, C. S. 1921, was amended by the 1923 Legislature to read as follows:

“Any person who shall, under oral or written contract with the owner of any tract or piece of land, perform labor, or furnish material for the erection, alteration, or repair of any building, improvement or. structure thereon, or perform labor in putting up any fixtures, machinery in, or attachment to. any such building, structure or improvements'* * * shall have a lien upon the whole of said tract or piece of' land, the buildings and appurtenances. If the title to the land is not in the person with whom -such contract was made, the lien shall be allowed on the buildings and improvements on such land separately from the real estate. * ’ * *”

It is- conceded that the defendant Com-stock was at ail times the record owner of the lot in question; that the plaintiff Keteham had the written consent of the owner to furnish the defendant Manning the material *247 with which Manning erected the building on the lot in question; .and that the plaintiffs in error did not have either the oral or written consent of the owner- to' furnish labor or material to the defendant Manning.

Under this state of facts the court held that the plaintiff Ketcham, by virtue of his contraec, was entitled to a first lien upon the lot and improvements thereon to the extent of his claim; that the defendant Corn-stock-, the owner of the tot, was entitled to a second lien for the purchase price of $600; and that after the sale of the property as a whole, the other claimants, plaintiffs in error, should pro rate equally between themselves the balance remaining after the satisfaction of the claim of the owner, Comstock, .and the claim of the plaintiff H. E. Ketcham, together with interest and whatever was reasonable attorney fees.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1926 OK 574, 257 P. 320, 125 Okla. 245, 1926 Okla. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/okmulgee-plumbing-co-v-comstock-okla-1926.