Paget v. Peters

289 P. 1119, 286 P. 983, 133 Or. 608, 1930 Ore. LEXIS 83
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 4, 1930
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 289 P. 1119 (Paget v. Peters) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Paget v. Peters, 289 P. 1119, 286 P. 983, 133 Or. 608, 1930 Ore. LEXIS 83 (Or. 1930).

Opinions

*611 EOSSMAN, J.

Before considering the question of priority we shall dispose of the attacks made by the plaintiff upon the validity of the materialman’s and mechanics’ liens. The plaintiff contends that all of the liens are invalid because the lien notices do not state that August Wemme was the owner of the land. The lien notices in practically all instances state “that said Corbin A. Peters is the owner or reputed owner of said building or improvement of said lot or land above described. # * *” It will be observed from the statement of facts which precedes this decision that on April 6, 1927, Wemme, as vendor, and Peters as ven *612 dee, entered into a contract by which the former agreed to sell and the latter agreed to bny this lot; that May 5 Peters started construction of the building; that on June 27, 1927, Peters, having fully paid the purchase price of the lot, received a deed, and upon the same day recorded it; that the first of the liens with which we are concerned was filed July 1, 1927; the last December 19, 1927, and finally it was not until February 8, 1928, that Peters parted with the title. Or. L., § 10195, provides that the lien notice shall state “the name of the owner, or reputed owner, if known. * * *” We have held that this requirement is complied with when the lien notice states the name of the individual who owns the property when the notice is filed. Willamette Lumbering Co. v. McLeod, 27 Or. 272 (40 P. 93). The rule in effect in many other states is the same: 40 C. J., Mechanics’ Liens, 228, §275; 18 R. C. L., Mechanics’ Liens, §68; Jones on Liens (3d Ed.), § 1399. Since Peters was the owner of the record title at the time when the lien notices were filed his name was properly inserted in them as owner.

Plaintiff contends that since none of the claimants gave August Wemme the five days notice provided for by § 10191, Or. L., they failed to perfect their lien notices. That portion of the act, just mentioned, upon which the plaintiff relies, provides:

“Every mechanic * * * builder, contractor * * * and other persons performing labor upon or furnishing material * * * to be used in the construction * * * of any building * * * shall have a lien upon the same for the work or labor done or transportation or material furnished at the instance of the owner of the building * * * or his agent; and every contractor * * * or other person having charge of the construction * * * of any building *613 * * * shall be held to be the agent of the owner for the purpose of this act; provided, that every person * * * furnishing material or supplies of any ldnd to be used in the construction * * * of any building * * * shall not later than five days after the date of the first delivery, to any contractor or agent, of such material or supplies for which a lien may be claimed, deliver or mail to the owner or reputed owner of the property * * * a notice in writing stating in substance * * * that such person * * * has commenced to deliver material and supplies for use thereon, with the name of the contractor or agent or other person ordering the same, and that a lien may be claimed * * V’

Since the building and not the land is the product of the labor and the material which constructed it, the building and not the land has been selected by our lien laws as the primary subject-matter of the liens; but the presence of a building upon the land may be a benefit to it, and hence our statute makes provision that a lien may be extended to the land as an incident to its encumbrance upon the building. That a lien may exist exclusively upon the building when the claimants are unable to extend it to the land is settled by Schramm, v. Manary, 123 Or. 354 (260 P. 214, 262 P. 263). Chenoweth v. Spencer, 64 Or. 540 (131 P. 302, 34 Ann. Cas. 678), is an illustration of the application by this court of the principle just stated; there it was held that the incidental lien upon the land expired when the building, the product of the lienable items of labor and material, was consumed by fire. Section 10192, Or. L., makes provision for the extension of the lien upon the land; it provides:

“The land upon which any building * * * shall be constructed, together with a convenient space about the same # * * shall also be subject to the liens created by the act, if, at the time the work was com *614 meneed or the materials for the same had been commenced to be furnished, the said land belonged to the person who caused said building * * * to be constructed. * * * ”

All of the defendants received their requisitions directly from Peters. Apparently immediately following the execution of the contract by the Wemmes, whereby they agreed to convey title to him upon receipt of $1,050, Peters went into possession, and as owner proceeded with the construction of the house. He was in direct charge of all the work. It is evident that he was not the agent of, nor the contractor for Wemme; for a similar conclusion see Hannan v. Handy, 104 Conn. 653 (134 Atl. 71, 47 A. L. R. 259). Wemme had no interest whatever in the house; in fact he posted a notice of nonliability. Hence, the defendants were not delivering materials “to any contractor or agent” of the owner of the lot, but were original contractors dealing directly with the owner of the house. The statute requires that only those who deliver materials “to any contractor or agent” shall give notice to the owner of the lot; since the defendants dealt directly with the owner of the building this requirement of the statute did not affect them. They won their right to perfect liens upon the building by delivering materials upon the requisition of the owner of the structure; their rights, if any, to liens upon the land came to them by virtue of Or. L., § 10192, and the relationship between the owner of the building and Wemme. We shall later consider the plaintiff’s contention that the liens did not extend to the land.

The plaintiff insists that several of the liens are invalid because the lien notices do not state (a) the dates when the claimant began his work or commenced his delivery of material, (b) when he completed his *615 work or made Ms last delivery, and (c) when the building was completed. The lien statute, which is the sole source of all requirements that must be met by the lien notice, does not exact of the claimant a statement of those dates. Or. L., § 10195, requires the claimant “to file with the county clerk * * * a claim containing a true statement of his demand, after deducting all just credits and offsets, * * Several of our previous decisions indicate that the dates wMch are missing in these lien notices need not be set forth: Christman v. Salway, 103 Or. 666 (205 P. 541); St. Johns Lumber Co. v. Pritz, 75 Or. 286 (146 P. 483, 486); Allen v. Elwert, 29 Or. 428 (44 P. 823); Curtis v. Sestanovich, 26 Or. 107 (37 P. 67).

From 40 C. J., Mechanics’ Liens, 239, §289, we quote:

“In the absence of any statutory requirement to that effect it has been held not necessary to the validity of the claim that it should state the time of doing the work or furnishing the materials.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
289 P. 1119, 286 P. 983, 133 Or. 608, 1930 Ore. LEXIS 83, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/paget-v-peters-or-1930.