Sinclair v. Fitch

3 E.D. Smith 677
CourtNew York Court of Common Pleas
DecidedJuly 15, 1857
StatusPublished

This text of 3 E.D. Smith 677 (Sinclair v. Fitch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sinclair v. Fitch, 3 E.D. Smith 677 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1857).

Opinion

By the Court. Ingraham, First J.

The defendants demurred to both causes, of action stated in the plaintiffs’ complaint.

The first cause of action as stated in the complaint is undoubtedly defective in itself in not showing any cause of action against Fitch and Wilcox. It avers that Thomson was the owner, that he made the contract with the plaintiffs, that they did the work under the contract amounting in value to a specified sum, and that they filed the lien as required by law. There is [689]*689nothing in all this statement that shows that Fitch and Wilcox have any interest or are subject to any liability which justifies the plaintiff in making them parties defendants.

Unless the plaintiffs can avail themselves of the allegations in the statement of the second cause of action, they cannot succeed in holding those defendants responsible.

By the 167th section of the Code, provision is made for uniting several causes of action. But the same section requires that each cause of action must be separately stated. Is the cause of action against Fitch and Wilcox as to the first claim so stated ? It seems to me there can be no doubt on this question. There is in it no statement whatever against these defendants; nothing which, if the statement of that claim stood alone, would show any warrant for making them defendants; and if demurred to for that cause the demurrer should have been sustained. If there is no such allegation in the statement of that cause of action, the defect cannot be remedied by referring to the second. If any such rule of construction should be adopted, the provisions of the 167th section, requiring a separate statement of each cause of action, would be a nullity. The causes of action should be stated so distinctly and separately, that each one by itself, and unconnected with the other, may show a good cause of action against the defendants. 1 do not intend to be understood as saying that a plaintiff may not, preliminarily to a statement of the causes of action, make those general averments as to the case, which are applicable to both statements, so that each one with the preliminary averments would be perfect in itself. But he cannot, in order to benefit the first statement, refer tc matters set out in the second.

The statement of the second cause of action is I think also defective. It avers a claim for work done under a contract with Thomson ; that Thomson conveyed the premises to the other defendants, on the 13th December, 1855, subject to the payment of the last mentioned sum of money, of which the defendants are charged with notice. It also avers that the notice to create the lien was filed on the 8th April, 1856, long after the defendants, Fitch and Wilcox, became purchasers. This is [690]*690not sufficient under the lien law to show the liability of those defendants. When they became the purchasers there was no notice filed to create a lien and of course there existed no legal claim upon the property for which the defendants’ interest therein could be held liable. They took the property discharged from any such lien, and the subsequent filing of the notice did not create a lien for which their interest could be made liable.

If the allegation of the defendants’ purchase subject to the pay-' ments of certain moneys, is made out, the defendants might be made liable therefor in a proper action; but in a proceeding under the lien law we have repeatedly held, the only remedy is against the specific property subject to the lien, and no liability of the owner can be enforced in an action brought under that statute, beyond his interest in the land itself. The land having been conveyed before any such lien existed and the defendants not having had any work done thereon since the purchase, there is no cause of action shown against them under the lien law.

The case of Marquat v. Marquat, 2 Kernan, 236, and Lewis v. Varnum, decided in this court in December, 1856,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Beales v. Finch
9 How. Pr. 385 (New York Court of Appeals, 1854)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
3 E.D. Smith 677, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sinclair-v-fitch-nyctcompl-1857.