Slagle-Johnson Lumber, Inc. v. Landis Construction Co.

366 So. 2d 206, 1978 La. App. LEXIS 3077
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedDecember 4, 1978
DocketNo. 13717
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 366 So. 2d 206 (Slagle-Johnson Lumber, Inc. v. Landis Construction Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Slagle-Johnson Lumber, Inc. v. Landis Construction Co., 366 So. 2d 206, 1978 La. App. LEXIS 3077 (La. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

MARVIN, Judge.

In this action under the Public Works Act (R.S. 38:2241 et seq.), the plaintiff appeals the rejection of its demands for recognition of a materialman’s lien arising out of the construction of the football stadium at Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe, a concrete structure completed in September, 1978.

The lower court held that the material sold by plaintiff to a subcontractor (plywood, lumber and nails), and used with other material to build forms for the structure into which was placed steel and concrete, was not material or supplies furnished for the construction of the stadium within the meaning of the Act.1 We agree. H. R. Hayes Lumber Co. v. McConnell, 176 La. 431, 146 So. 14 (1933).

Some of the wooden forming material survives the job and may be used on other jobs. Much of the material, however, becomes useless after repeated assembly and dismantling. Here the • subcontractor defaulted on his forming contract when the work was about 30 percent complete. The general contractor, with some of its own material, used some of the material aban[207]*207doned on the job by the subcontractor, and completed the remainder of the forming work.

The Public Works Act, originally Act 224 of 1918, although often amended and expanded in many respects since then, has remained unchanged with respect to what materials are lienable, as has the interpretation of the statute in several cases.2 To be furnished for the construction of a public work and thus lienable, the material must be incorporated into the work or directly consumed by the work so as to become a part of the work. H. R. Hayes Lumber Co., supra.

“It appears to be well settled that materials which form a component part of the completed structure or are consumed in the work are considered covered by the contractor’s bond given under the provisions of [the] Act ... On the other hand, it is equally well settled that the instrumentalities forming a part of the contractor’s plant or equipment used in doing the work which survive the performance and remain the property of their owner after the completion of the contract are not covered by the bond .” Louisiana Highway Commission v. McCain, 197 La. 359, 1 So.2d 545, 547 (1941); B. & G. Crane Service, Inc. v. Anderson Bros. Corp., 132 So.2d 681 (La.App. 1st Cir. 1961); see Patent Scaffolding Co. v. Ross Corporation, 172 So.2d 364 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1965) writ refused; Best Electric Supply Company, Inc. v. Rittiner, 334 So.2d 792 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1976).

In the first cited case a lumber company which furnished material to a . bridge contractor was allowed recovery for part of the material which went into the completed structure, but not for the part of the material which did not go into the completed structure. In the second cited case, nails, cable, wedges and rope which were not shown to have gone into, or to have been consumed by, the construction of a highway were held not lienable.

In the Hayes Lumber Co. case, the material furnished was lumber and nails “. . . used for the construction of forms, into which concrete was poured and allowed to harden . . . The forms . were taken apart . . . and the material . . . was repeatedly used for the construction of new forms . all of the nails . . . and about 75 percent of the lumber was materially . destroyed . . . Some of the lumber, after the completion of the work, was . used on other contracts.” 146 So. at 15. The argument was made in Hayes Lumber Company that the forms were “effectively consumed” as were the dynamite and caps in Long Bell Lumber Company case. The Supreme Court answered:

“[2] The [Long Bell] case was one where, by the direct use and consumption of the material on the proposed bed of the roadway, a desired condition was brought about, which formed a permanent and necessary part of the roadway. In that sense, it may be said the material entered into the completed work. On the other hand, the present case is one in which the lumber and the nails were not used directly on the work, but indirectly on it, once removed, as it were, from the highway construction, much, though not quite so far, as was the saw that sawed the lumber. In this view, there is a clear [208]*208distinction between this case and the Long Bell Lumber Co. Case — a distinction that it is necessary to observe, otherwise the act^ of 1918, which is intended to protect certain classes of claimants, will be made virtually of no value by the letting in of a large number of claimants, never intended by the Legislature, whose claims are far removed from the improvement under way. It may be said that it was not the intention of the majority of the court, in the Long Bell Lumber Co. Case, to depart from prior jurisprudence, as appears from the face of the decision itself. It may also be said that the question presented is not one of equity, but is one of law, and of that kind which must be construed strictly, and the jurisprudence under it must be uniform, for there is a vast amount of material furnished monthly in this state under the statute, the furnishers looking largely to the statute for protection.
“Since the [forming] material furnished did not enter directly into the improvement, but only in an indirect and secondary manner, and, in no sense, goes to make up the completed improvement, and since the act of 1918 has not been amended so as to bring the material furnished within its scope, there is nothing to do but to amend the judgment appealed from by rejecting the demand of the H. R. Hayes Lumber Company . . . ” 146 So. at p. 16.

The Hayes Lumber Co. case also discussed the equities which were there, as well as here, argued:

“In the case of State v. Smith, 167 La. 301, 320, 321, 119 So. 56, 63 [1928], in passing on claims, arising prior to the amendment of the act of 1918, by the act of 1926, for the sale ... of gasoline and oil for the use of the machinery in constructing ... a public highway, and for plain piling, used for a temporary trestle, it was said:
‘It will be seen that none of the supplies or materials enumerated entered into the structure of the road embankment. * * * The statute grants a privilege for “material furnished in the construction, erection, alteration or repair of such road.” If this language is intended to describe material entering into and forming part of the structure, according to its specifications and design, it of course, excludes the items enumerated, and such must be the interpretation. While there are equities favoring a different view, the term “material,” when found in a building statute, generally means something which becomes incorporated as a part of the building or structure, and it would require extremely liberal construction to construe it to include “supplies” not forming part of the structure.’ ” 146 So. at p. 16.

Continental Casualty Co. v. Associated Pipe & Supply Co., 310 F.Supp. 1207 (E.D.La.1969), on which plaintiff relies, interpreted the Long Bell case to allow a lien for wire and rope cut into various lengths and “effectively consumed” in facilitating pipeline construction, but not incorporated into the actual construction. The federal district court, however, failed to consider the explanation by the Louisiana Supreme Court of its Long Bell holding made in H. R. Hayes Lumber Co.,

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Related

Slagle-Johnson Lumber Co. v. Landis Const. Co.
379 So. 2d 479 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1980)
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367 So. 2d 379 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1979)

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366 So. 2d 206, 1978 La. App. LEXIS 3077, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slagle-johnson-lumber-inc-v-landis-construction-co-lactapp-1978.