Stimson Mill Co. v. Feigenson Engineering Co.

170 P. 573, 100 Wash. 172, 1918 Wash. LEXIS 728
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 5, 1918
DocketNo. 14348
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 170 P. 573 (Stimson Mill Co. v. Feigenson Engineering Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stimson Mill Co. v. Feigenson Engineering Co., 170 P. 573, 100 Wash. 172, 1918 Wash. LEXIS 728 (Wash. 1918).

Opinion

Chadwick, J.

The C. D. Stimson Company, a corporation, hereinafter referred to as the owner, leased to the Natatorium Company, a corporation, to be referred to as the lessee, certain property in the city of Seattle. It agreed to construct a building for the lessee to be used by it as a natatorium. An architect was employed to draw plans and specifications. He entered into a contract with the lessee. The contract was vised on its face “Accepted by C. D. Stimson Co., Per. Thomas D. Stimson.” General plans and specifications were prepared, and a contract let to Hans Pederson to construct the building according to the satisfaction of the architect and the owner.

Several questions, related in no way, one with the other, are presented by the record. They arise out of the claims of lienholders and will be treated separately.

THE STIMSON MILL COMPANY.

Pederson let a subcontract to the Feigenson Engineering Company for the construction and removal of concrete forms. The subcontractor bought a certain amount of lumber from the Stimson Mill Company. This lumber was not paid for. The mill company filed its lien making the engineering company a party. The [174]*174owner and Hans Pederson, the contractor, who had intervened, answered jointly bringing in the Fidelity & Deposit Company, surety upon the engineer’s bond, as a party.

The court decided, among other things, that the mill company was entitled to assert a lien for the amount of the lumber used to make the concrete forms, and that Pederson should have judgment over against the engineering company and the surety company, after the claim of the mill company had been satisfied.

The engineering company and the surety company attack the decree for the following reasons: That the. amount of the judgment is too large; that the plaintiff is not entitled to a lien; and that the intervener Pederson is not entitled to a judgment over against the surety company in any event.

The contention that the recovery is too large is based upon the testimony of Mr. Feigenson, the manager of the engineering company. He bought some lumber, which he says was fit for the uses intended for $6.50 per M, whereas the mill company charged $8 with $1 for delivery, making a total charge of $9. He says that the architect rejected the lumber he bought elsewhere, and following Mr. Pederson’s suggestion that he give the mill company his business on an equal basis with others, he called the manager of the mill company to the telephone and asked for a quotation of prices. He was quoted the price charged. He ordered “two loads of lumber to give them a chance to think it over whether they wanted to take it at the other man’s price or not.” The challenge of the engineering company to the amount of the claim résts in the following questions and answers:

“Q. How did the remaining material happen to be delivered? A. After I had received a considerable amount from the other people, then, through the archi[175]*175tect’s inspector on the job, they refused to let me use any more of this other man’s material, and I still kept on ordering it, and it got so bad at times that the inspector on the job would go into the office and call up Mr. Ives to find out whether he would let me unload the load of lumber or not. In other words, they forced me to buy material from them at the higher price. Q. You, every time you needed more lumber you would call them up and described the lumber you wanted and they would send it? A. I had to do it. Q. You did do it? A. I had to do it. Q. The architect required you to do it? A. Yes, sir.”

Clearly the architect had a right to throw out unfit material. The engineering company was under no compulsion to buy from the mill company. If it could have bought fit material elsewhere, it was free to do so. There is no showing that it could have bought fit material at a less price than it agreed to pay the mill company, and the law will not permit it to measure the reasonable value of sound lumber by comparison with unsound material.

A claim is made that the item of cartage is not lien-able. It has been held otherwise. Brace & Hergert Mill Co. v. Burbank, 87 Wash. 356, 151 Pac. 803; Siler Mill Co. v. Nelson Co., 94 Wash. 477, 162 Pac. 590.

It is next contended that a lien will not lie for the value of lumber used in making concrete forms, for the reason that the lumber does not become a part of the finished structure. As by way of emphasis, coun,sel calls attention to the wording of the subcontract, which called for the “construction and removal” of the concrete forms, and that the forms were removed and in part used on another job, in part given to a third party, and in part burned. It is also contended that the lumber for concrete forms is an appliance and falls within our own cases holding that a lien will not lie for tools or appliances used to facilitate the work.

[176]*176The use of concrete in modern building operations has become so common that we may almost take judicial notice of the fact that buildings are no longer erected without the use of it, and that form lumber when once used is stained, warped, wired and coated with cement so that it is no longer a commercial commodity, and is to be classed as waste. It was within the contemplation of all the parties to this contract that lumber forms must be used.

Our statute, Rem. Code, § 1129, provides that a lien may be had for all materials used in the construction of a building. It does not provide that all material shall remain permanently in the building, and we see no more reason for rejecting form lumber ás a subject of lien than we would have for refusing a lien for false work erected to sustain an arch or floor. The great weight of modern authority is to the effect that a lien may be asserted for the value of lumber used to make concrete forms. Baldwin Locomotive Works v. Edward Hines Lumber Co. (Ind.), 116 N. E. 739; Stravs v. Steckbauer, 136 Minn. 69, 161 N. W. 259; Darlington Lum. Co. v. Westlake Const. Co., 161 Mo. App. 723, 141 S. W. 931; Chicago Lum. Co. v. Douglas, 89 Kan. 308, 131 Pac. 563, 44 L. R. A. (N. S.) 843; Moritz v. Sands Lumber Co., 158 Wis. 49, 146 N. W. 1120, 51 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1040; Avery & Sons v. Woodruff & Cahill, 144 Ky. 227, 137 S. W. 1088, 36 L. R. A. (N. S.) 866.

In Adams v. Dose, 87 Wash. 575, 152 Pac. 9, a lien for forms for concrete was sustained. The objection now made was not suggested by either court or counsel.

We are not called upon to decide whether a contractor who buys lumber to build standard forms, permanent in character and intended to be taken out and used again in like construction, would be entitled [177]*177to a lien. It is enough that the material furnished by the claimant was used in the construction of the work. Under the facts, a liberal interpretation of the statute, Rem. Code, § 1129, demands that a lien for its value he sustained.

It is next contended that no notice was given hv the mill company to the owner. The notice is a part of the record. The proof shows that it was given, and its receipt is acknowledged. The statutory notice is provided fór the benefit of the owner, and it is not complaining.

Neither is there merit in the contention that the surety .company is not hound to pay the cost of the material. It engaged itself as a surety under the following conditions:

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Bluebook (online)
170 P. 573, 100 Wash. 172, 1918 Wash. LEXIS 728, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stimson-mill-co-v-feigenson-engineering-co-wash-1918.