Southern Surety Co. v. Metropolitan Sewerage Commission

187 Wis. 206
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJune 22, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 187 Wis. 206 (Southern Surety Co. v. Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Surety Co. v. Metropolitan Sewerage Commission, 187 Wis. 206 (Wis. 1923).

Opinion

The following opinion was filed January 13, 1925:

Eschweiler, J.

The contract in question and the obligation of the plaintiff surety as to the several claims here involved require the consideration of two separate provisions found in ch. 289, Stats., entitled “Liens,” namely: sec. 3327a, providing for the form of contract, bond to be given, and remedy thereon in contracts involving public works; and sec. 3347dd, providing for the pro rata payment to claimants out of any withheld balances, on account of public work.

The substantial issue between the parties here is as to what may or may not be allowed as within such respective [211]*211statutes, and particularly as to an amendment in 1917 of said sec. 3327a.

Prior to ch. 388,- Laws of 1917, sec. 3327a provided, in substance, that contracts let for the erection, construction, equipment, repairs, protection, or removal of any building of the state shall contain provision for the payment by the contractor of all claims for labor and materials, and the giving a bond conditioned for the faithful performance of the contract, and the payment of all the claims for work or labor performed and materials furnished in and about the erection, construction, equipment, repairs, protection, or removal of such building to each and every person entitled thereto. It also then, as now, contained provisions, not material here, for the bringing of an action against the contractor and the surety to recover any such liability. Such statute had been repeatedly construed by this court and held that it afforded to those who had been engaged in the kind of work therein designated for the state no other or greater right, so far as the kind or nature of the work done or materials furnished was concerned, than was afforded under the general lien statute found in the same chapter for those who performed work or furnished materials or supplies in and about contracts by individuals or corporations; it being established doctrine that public funds such as were involved in work done for the state, and the same applied to municipal or gttim'-municipal corporations, were not, in the absence of specific legislative consent and authority, subject to the remedies in the nature of garnishment or equitable impounding of the same.

In Wisconsin Brick Co. v. National Surety Co. 164 Wis. 585, 160 N. W. 1044, the history of this then section was given and its intention declared to be that the remedy thereby provided went no further as to kind or nature of claims than did the general mechanic’s lien remedy. In that case it was also held that neither under the statute nor the bond there given pursuant thereto were railroad freight charges for transporting of materials which were used in the con[212]*212struction, on behalf of the state, of two buildings for the University, recoverable against the surety on such bond; declaring also that such railroad company would clearly not be entitled to a mechanic’s lien for such a charge, and that it had waived its common-law lien for freight charges as a carrier by the delivery of the material without prior payment. A similar conclusion as to freight charges for transporting brick for city pavement was reached in Union T. Co. v. Standard B. Co. 112 Kan. 774, 213 Pac. 169, 30 A. L. R. 464, with note at p. 466.

At the close of the opinion in the Wisconsin Brick Co. Case, supra, decided January 16, 1917, at page 589 it was-said: “If we are wrong in our construction of the legislative intention, our error can be readily and easily corrected by the legislature itself.”

February 12, 1917, a bill proposing an amendment of said sec. 3327a was introduced. So far as deemed material for consideration here, it proposed striking out the words “erection, construction, equipment, repairs, protection or removal of any building of the state,” and inserting in lieu thereof the following: “performance of any work or labor or furnishing any materials when the same is of any of the classes or cases or of the character enumerated in section 3314 of the statutes [the general mechanic lien law], and when the same pertains to and is for or in or about any public building, public improvement, public road, alley or highway, or other public work of the state, or of any county, city, village, town, school district, or of any public board or body.” A substitute amendment followed which struck out of the clause above quoted from such original amending bill the words “when the sarhe is of any of the classes or cases or of the character enumerated in section 3314 of the statutes, and . . .” Such changes were in the act, ch. 388 of 1917, as finally passed. Another change was made in the statute so far as affecting the liability of the contractor and the surety by substituting for the provision in the old section [213]*213supra, “and the payment of all the claims for work or labor performed, and material furnished in and about the erection, construction, equipment, repairs, protection or removal of such building, to each and every person or party entitled thereto,” by now providing in lieu thereof the phrase “of all the claims for work or labor performed, and materials furnished for or in or about or under such contract.” Respondents here contend for the view held by the trial court that by such amendment, ch. 388 of 1917, there was an enlargement not only of the classes or kinds of principals or owners, but also a substantial widening of the classes or kinds of possible liens.

Emphasis is laid in such construction upon the provision appearing in said amendment that the remedy is for work or labor performed and materials furnished “for or in or about or under such contract,” and that in the substitute amendment and the act as passed there was dropped out the provision that appeared in the original bill, viz. “the classes or cases or of the character enumerated in section 3314 of the statutes,” arguing that thereby it was intended to substantially widen the field of such claims against public bodies from that which had been defined and marked out in the Wisconsin Brick Co. Case, supra; and that such was an expression of a legislative intent to thereby respond to the suggestion made in the Brick Co. Case and above quoted.

We are satisfied, however, that the amendment of 1917 was not intended to have the effect for which respondents contend. This statute has two separate and distinct parts or elements; one defining or expressing that for which the remedy is given, the other defining or describing those against whom or .the property against which it is given; a change as to the one not at all necessarily implying an intention to change the other. There was here an unmistakable and expressed intent to change as to the kind of public works the public bodies and funds as to which and against which such remedy was not to apply, but no such expressed intent [214]*214to change the other element or part of the -statute. The latter remains as before, viz. work, labor, and furnishing of materials; nothing is added to these; they -are not broadened or extended; and the delimitation or definition of them as given in the Wisconsin Brick Co. Case, supra, is in no wise, expressly at least, changed, though that was the precise element of the statute to which the suggestion in that case was pointed. The dropping out of the phrase, “the classes or cases or of the character enumerated in section 3314 of the statutes,”

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Bluebook (online)
187 Wis. 206, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-surety-co-v-metropolitan-sewerage-commission-wis-1923.