Valley View Development Corp. v. Cheugh & Schlegel of Dayton, Inc.

280 N.E.2d 319, 151 Ind. App. 450, 1972 Ind. App. LEXIS 848
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 27, 1972
DocketNo. 1271 A 257
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 280 N.E.2d 319 (Valley View Development Corp. v. Cheugh & Schlegel of Dayton, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Valley View Development Corp. v. Cheugh & Schlegel of Dayton, Inc., 280 N.E.2d 319, 151 Ind. App. 450, 1972 Ind. App. LEXIS 848 (Ind. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

Lowdermilk, J.

This case comes to us after being tried to the court without the intervention of a jury, on the foreclosure of a mechanic’s lien against the defendant-appellant and a judgment thereon in favor of the plaintiff-appellee.

The facts most favorable to the plaintiff-appellee, Cheugh & Schlegel, are that the Valley View Development Corporation entered into a contract with the Rochon Engineering Company for the construction of a building at the Mooresville Shopping Center, located in Morgan County, and which shopping center was owned by the defendant-appellant. Pursuant to said contract, the Rochon Engineering Company ordered certain steel products for use in the main building of the shopping center from the plaintiff-appellee, Cheugh & Schlegel of Dayton, Inc. The total amount invoiced to the Rochon Engineering Company for the steel products ordered for and delivered to the Mooresville Shopping Center was $18,278.00. The amount of $7,178.44 was accepted as partial payment from the Rochon [452]*452Engineering Company, leaving an amount due and owing from that company to the plaintiff of $11,099.56. The last shipment of materials from the plaintiff to Mooresville Shopping Center arrived at said shopping center on the 4th day of November, 1968, and was partially used by the defendant.

Cheugh & Schlegel recorded a notice of mechanic’s lien with the Recorder of Morgan County, Indiana, on the 26th day of December, 1968. This notice of mechanic’s lien reflected a description of the Mooresville Shopping Center, and was directed to the defendant, Valley View Development Corporation. It had been sworn to and signed in the presence of a Notary Public on the 23rd day of December, 1968. A copy of the plaintiff’s notice of mechanic’s lien was mailed to the defendant, Valley View Development Corporation, in care of the President, Charles Amy, Indianapolis, Indiana, on December 30, 1968, by the Recorder of Morgan County, Indiana. Plaintiff filed its complaint to foreclose the mechanic’s lien against the defendant, Valley View Development Corporation, on the 18th day of December, 1969.

Summons was subsequently issued by the Morgan County Circuit Clerk on February 11, 1970. Service was had on the defendant, Valley View Development Corporation, on the 16th day of February, 1970.

The defendant-appellant sets out its motion to correct alleged errors, of which we shall here only set out number 3, for the reason that the trial court’s findings and judgment was erroneous as to said specification 3 of the motion to correct errors.

Specification 3 is in the words as follows, to-wit:

“3. The suit to foreclose the lien will not lie because the record shows that the Clerk received the complaint filed marked December 18, 1969, but summons was not issued until February 11, 1970, approximately two months past the limit allowed by the statute (notice of mechanics lien filed with Recorder of Morgan County on December 26, 1968, the lien expired one year after that date, since the action to foreclose the lien had not yet been commenced.) ”

[453]*453Defendant-appellant therewith filed a memorandum in support of the motion to correct errors. The motion to correct errors and much of the memorandum in support thereof is set out in the defendant-appellant’s brief.

Valley View cites as authority for support of this contention Burns 1967 Replacement § 2-619, Burns 1967 Replacement § 2-622, and Burns 1967 Replacement § 2-802. Said statutes each reads, in part, as follows, to-wit:

“2-619. Expiration of mechanic’s liens. — The lien of all mechanic’s liens filed under the laws of this state shall cease and expire one [1] year from the time the debt secured thereby becomes due, as shown by the record of the notice of the lien. . . .”
“2-622. Action before expiration. — In case an action shall be begun in the courts of this state to foreclose or enforce the lien of any mortgage or other lien mentioned in this act [§§ 2-618, 2-619, 2-621, 2-622] before the expiration of the lien thereof, as herein provided, such lien may be enforced in such action as it existed at the time the action was commenced.” (Our emphasis.)
“2-802. Filing complaint-Summons. — A civil action shall be commenced by filing in the office of the clerk a complaint, and causing a summons to issue thereon; and the action shall be deemed to be commenced from the time of issuing the summons; . . .”

Defendant-appellant Valley View further states action to foreclose the lien asserted by the plaintiff-appellee will not lie because the lien, if any, had expired before the action was commenced, pursuant to said Burns §§ 2-619 and 2-622. The record shows that the Clerk received the complaint on December 18, 1969, with a praecipe for summons returnable January 3, 1970, but the summons was not issued until February 11, 1970. The notice of mechanic’s lien had been filed with the Recorder of Morgan County on December 26, 1968, after which timely notice of the filing was sent to the defendant-appellant by said County Recorder and since no summons had been issued by December 26, 1969, no action had commenced, pursuant to Burns § 2-802, supra, and the lien had expired.

[454]*454Plaintiff-appellee counters such argument and statutes with Burns 1965 Replacement § 43-705, which reads as follows, to-wit:

“43-705. How enforced-Filing-Foreclosure and Sale.— Any person having such lien may enforce the same by filing his complaint in the circuit or superior court of the county where the real estate or property on which the lien is so taken is situated, at any time within one [1] year from the time when said notice has been received for record by the recorder of the county; or, if a credit be given, from the expiration of the credit, and if said lien shall not be enforced within the time prescribed by this section, the same shall be null and void; . . .” (Our emphasis.)

Plaintiff-appellee relies on the case of Moore-Mansfield, etc., Co. v. Indianapolis, etc., R. Co. (1913), 179 Ind. 356, 101 N. E. 296, which is hereinafter discussed.

Previously, when considering this same question, this court, in the case of Carriger et al. v. Mackey (1896), 15 Ind. App. 392, 44 N. E. 266, stated:

“The objection urged to the complaint is that it fails to show that the action was brought within the time limited by law.
“The statute requires that ‘the complaint shall be filed’ in the circuit or superior court, within one year from the time when the notice was received for record in the recorder’s office. . . . The appellants’ counsel misapprehend the language of the statute. It does not require the action to be commenced within a year from the receipt of the notice in the recorder’s office, but, as we have shown, it provides that the complaint shall be filed within that time. . . . We are aware that an action is not properly commenced until a summons has been issued and placed in the hands of the officer for service. . . . Charlestown School Tp. v. Hay, 74 Ind. 127. As the language of the statute does not require that the action must be commenced within a year from the receipt of the notice, the objection pointed out to the complaint is not well taken.

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280 N.E.2d 319, 151 Ind. App. 450, 1972 Ind. App. LEXIS 848, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/valley-view-development-corp-v-cheugh-schlegel-of-dayton-inc-indctapp-1972.