Sorg v. Crandall

129 Ill. App. 255, 1906 Ill. App. LEXIS 729
Appellate Court of Illinois·Decided October 29, 1906·No. Gen. No. 12,589·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

Mr. Justice Holdom

delivered the opinion of the court.

The appellants, S. Jennie Sorg, Paul A. Sorg and Ada G-. Sorg, prosecute this appeal from a decree of the Circuit Court allowing the claims of appellees, Roland A. Crandall, George M. Gross, Robert Gordon, Albert H. ITettich and Simpson Brothers, and establishing a lien in their favor, pursuant to chapter 82, R. S. of 1887, title “Liens,” for the amounts found due appellees respectively against the fee title now claimed by appellants. This appeal and that in No. 12,612, post, p. 261, has been consolidated for hearing upon the record in 12,613, Shields v. Sorg, post, p. 266, and many of the questions raised here have been decided in the latter ease, and for the questions thus decided and here involved we refer to the opinion on file in 12,613.

It but remains for us to determine on this appeal whether appellees have shown by their pleadings and proofs a substantial compliance with the requirements of the Lien Statute in order to entitle them to a lien, and if the master’s findings of the amounts found due are sustained by the record.

The record sufficiently shows that the appellees, Crandall, Cross, Cordon and Simpson Brothers, substantially complied with sections 4 and 28 of the Lien Act as to the time in which they filed notice of their claims with the clerk of the Circuit Court, the verification of these several claims and the times when the work was done and materials were supplied, are stated. Also the items of work done and the materials supplied are sufficiently, and in most cases amply set forth, and in these respects the demands of the statute have been fully met. Bach of the statements filed by the foregoing claimants rises- to the standard marked in Crandall v. Lyon, 188 Ill. 86, that they must be in detail, showing each different item of labor or material, its nature and kind, with the dates on which the labor was performed or material furnished, and we find nothing omitted from any of these statements which the statute requires as a basis upon which a lien may rest. The notice in the Simpson case is in conformity with the ruling in Moore v. Parish, 163 Ill. 93.

The criticism made by appellants to the claim of Gordon appears to be satisfactorily met in Blanchard v. Fried, 162 Ill. 462. The first page of the Gordon account in headed “Chicago, Feb. 15, 1893,” and all the items are set forth under dates designated in figures thus: 2/4—2/25. Another account is headed

‘ ‘ Chicago, March 9, 1893,” and the marginal dates of material furnished are likewise designated in figures, as 2/24—3/9, etc.; the same method being followed in the remaining accounts, which together with a verification comprise the notice of claim filed with the Circuit Court. Figures in a date column-—-where these figures are found—-have a well-defined common and universally understood meaning both commercially and legally. The figures 2/24 mean second month, twenty-fourth day—viz., February 24, and according to the doctrine of Blanchard v. Fried, supra, there being no proof to the contrary, the year appearing at the head of the account will be assumed to be the year intended, viz., 1893.

The master found and the court decreed that there was due appellees upon their several claims the amounts here extended after their names, viz., Boland A. Crandall, $3,322.58, with interest from July 29, 1893; George M. Gross, $1,616.55, with interest from August 24, 1893; Bobert Gordon, $4,470.80, with interest from July 18, 1893; and Simpson Brothers, $919.96, with interest from July 11, 1893. There are no exceptions in the record to the master’s report as to the amounts due the foregoing appellees, which challenge either the work done, material furnished or prices charged therefor, and no testimony was heard or proffered disputing the evidence of the last mentioned claimants as to these matters. So as to these several matters appellants are estopped from complaining here. Complaint is made by appellants, and the point preserved by an appropriate exception, that the allowance of interest upon the claims of the last mentioned appellees is without warrant of law. To this contention we are unable to accord our consent. The master evidently treated the filing of the several claims as the date on which the parties stated their account, and in the light of the fact that such statement was followed by pvoof sufficient to sustain the whole of the claim, appellees clearly brought their demand within that section of the interest statute which, among other things, provides that interest may be allowed “on settlement of account from the day of liquidating accounts between the parties and ascertaining the balance.” Or in other words, the master treated each claim as' an account stated on the day the notice of lien-was filed with the circuit clerk. The evidence justified such conclusion. It is not questioned by appellants, but that interest on these claims would be properly chargeable- against the Mecca Company, and this being so it follows from the responsibility to which the Supreme Court has held the fee title in Crandall v. Sorg, 198 Ill. 48, that while Sorg was not in name a party to the building contract, yet by his acts and participation in the subject-matter of it he became in law equally answerable with the Mecca Company for, all liability attaching in virtue of the Lien Act, supra, and his title subject to the same lien.

In Carey Lumber Co. v. Jones, 187 Ill. 203, involving a similar liability of a fee owner under a building contract made by the lessee in name, the court held that the lien attached to the whole of the property, including the fee owner’s title, and that the lien claimant was entitled under the statute to interest on his claim from the time it became due.

It is urged that Crandall waived his lien by taking a judgment at law upon his claim against the Mecca Company in a suit commenced on March 13, 1893, at which time he by his pleadings averred the claim to be due.

The remedy given by the Lien Statute is additional and cumulative of other remedies both against persons and property. Such remedies may be prosecuted . concurrently, and so doing does not impair the right to invoke the .lien given by statute. West v. Flemming, 18 Ill. 24-8.

The only limitation upon the prosecution of such remedies is, that there shall be but one satisfaction. Delahay v. Clement, 3 Scam. 201; Branigan v. Rose, 3 Gilm. 123.

It is insisted that Crandall having sworn that Ms claim was due March 13,1893, is estopped from setting up in this, proceeding any other date when the claim actually matured regardless of the fact, and that he not having filed Ms notice of lien until July 29 th in the same year, it was sixteen days too late and not within the four months within which time the statute requires it to be filed, and cases are cited in an attempt to sustain such insistence. It is a sufficient answer to say that Sorg was not a party to this judgment, and the doctrine of estoppel invoked has no application. Crandall, however, was to have been paid $2,470 on completion of the work and the balance due him in three notes at sixty, ninety and 120 days. The notes were never given or tendered.

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Sorg v. Crandall, 129 Ill. App. 255, 1906 Ill. App. LEXIS 729 (Ill. Ct. App. 1906).

129 Ill. App. 255 (Sorg v. Crandall) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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