Volker-Scowcroft Lumber Co. v. Vance

103 P. 970, 36 Utah 348, 1909 Utah LEXIS 76
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 26, 1909
DocketNo. 2028
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 103 P. 970 (Volker-Scowcroft Lumber Co. v. Vance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Volker-Scowcroft Lumber Co. v. Vance, 103 P. 970, 36 Utah 348, 1909 Utah LEXIS 76 (Utah 1909).

Opinion

STPvAUP, O. J.

This is an action brought by the VolkenScowcroft Lumber company to foreclose a materialman’s lien. Halverson Bros, appeared in the action, and also claimed and exhibited a lien for materials furnished and labor performed. Among' other things it is alleged in the answer by the defendant Vance that prior to and at the time of the letting of the contract for the construction of the buliding on her lots, and for which the materials were furnished and the labor performed by the lien claimants, she was, and still is, the head of a family, consisting of herself, her husband, and two children, that the lots upon which the building was constructed were her homestead, and that they, with the improvements thereon, did not exceed in value her homestead exemption. The court below sustained plaintiff’s demurrer to the answer. The defendant Vance refusing to further plead, the court rendered a judgment in plaintiff’s favor, awarded a lien on the real estate, and ordered a sale of the premises in satisfaction -of the claims. On the defendant’s appeal from that judgment (32 Utah 74, 88 Pac. 896, 125 Am. St. Rep. 828) we held that the court erred in sustaining the demurrer. We there held that because of the provisions of section 1, article 22, of the Constitution a homestead was not subject to a materialman’s or mechanic’s lien, in the absence of an express contract pledging the homestead. The judgment of the court below was therefore reversed, and the cause remanded. Thereafter the court tried the case upon the issues, and found that the defendant Vance was the owner of lots 5 and 6 upon which the building was constructed for which the materials were [352]*352furnished and the labor performed, and found that she also held the legal title to lots Y to 12, inclusive, adjoining lots 5 and 6 in the same block, but that she had entered into* a contract of sale to sell lots Y to 12 to her son, and that she had received the contract price therefor, which was a reasonable price; “that the said lots 5 and 6 were acquired by the defendant Vance, with the other real estate described (lots Y to .12) by purchase1, and was at all times intended to b®, and was used as, a home, and constitutes her homestead exemption”; that she entered into a contract with the defendant Irving Peterson to erect a building on lots 5 and 6 for an agreed price of $21Y5, which sum the defendant Vance paid to Peterson in accordance with the terms of her contract; that the said Irving Peterson purchased building materials of the plaintiff, the Volker-Scowcroft Lumber .Company, of the value of $YY4.Y5, no part of which has been paid except the sum of $198.98, and that the said plaintiff filed and claimed a lien against said property for the balance of $5Y5.0Y; that the said Peterson contracted with the lien claimants Hal-verson Bros, for the plumbing called for by the contract for the erection of said' building, and there is due said lien claimants $1Y9.Y5, for which they filed their notice of intention to claim a lien upon said property. The court further found that the defendant Vance was the head of á family consisting of herself, her husband, and a minor1 child, and that “all of the real estate hereinbefore described (lots 5 to 12), at the time plaintiffs furnished the materials and performed the labor, did not exceed $2250 in value (the amount of exemptions which she, under the statute, was entitled to claim in ‘lands’ as a homestead), and the said lots 5 and 6 do not now with the improvements exceed in value the sum of $2250, and that neither the said defendant, nor her husband, has any other homestead, and no member of said family has other property.” As conclusions of law the court held that neither lien claimant “was entitled to a judgment of this court against the said defendant Vance,” and that neither was entitled to a lien [353]*353or a sale of the premises in satisfaction of their indebtedness. A judgment was rendered accordingly, and the action dismissed. No service was had on the defendant Peterson.

The plaintiff .and Halverson Bros, appeal. They first urge that, though the lien failed, they nevertheless were entitled to a personal judgment against the defendant Yance. On the other hand, it is contended by the respondent that, in an action to foreclose a mechanic’s lien, when the lien fails the action also fails, in the absence of an express statutory provision authorizing the rendition of a judgment against the person personally liable. Prior to the Code a personal judgment apart from the 1 granting of equitable relief could not be rendered in an action in equity. As to whether in an action to foreclose a mechanic’s lien a personal judgment under our reformed system of procedure can be rendered against the person personally liable, when the lien fails, the authorities divide. (27 Cyc. 433; Boisot Mechanics’ Liens, sec. 654.) By some it has been held that a personal judgment can be given if the lien failed because’ of a noncomplianee with some provision of the statute essential to the claim of lien, but not if the lien was absolutely void, or if the claimant at the beginning was not entitled to lien; other courts, .holding that a personal judgment may be rendered, make no such distinction. Among the authorities holding that under the reformed procedure no personal judgment can be given in the action to foreclose a mechanic’s lien when the lien fails are the following: Hildebrandt v. Savage, 4 Wash. 524, 30 Pac. 643, 32 Pac. 109; Jensen v. Brown, 2 Colo. 694, and a number of later Colorado cases, until the amendment of a statute which expressly provided for a personal judgment “when the proceedings will not support a lien.” Like rulings have been made by the Supreme Court of Illinois (Green v. Sprague, 120 Ill. 416, 11 N. E. 859), Oregon (Ming Yue v. Coos Bay R. Co., 24 Or. 392, 33 Pac. 641), Iowa (Loring v. Small, 50 [354]*354Iowa 271, 32 Am. Rep. 136), and the Federal Court (Russell v. Hayner, 130 Fed. 90, 64 C. C. A. 424), but in these jurisdictions the union of legal and equitable primary rights and remedies was held not permissible under the prescribed procedure. In such particular equity and law courts were there regarded as still separate and- distinct. In the following cases, among others, it has been held that, under the reformed procedure, a personal judgment could be rendered against the person personally liable, though the lien failed, and though there was no express statute authorizing the rendition of a personal judgment in such case: McCormack v. Phillips, 4 Dak. 506, 34 N. W. 39; Western Plumbing Co. v. Fried, 33 Mont. 7, 81 Pac. 394, 114 Am. St. Rep. 799; Wyman v. Quayle, 9 Wyo. 326, 63 Pac. 988; Brugman v. McGuire, 32 Ark. 733; Sullivan Timber Co. v. Brushagel, 111 Ala. 114, 20 South. 498; Smith v. Gill, 37 Minn. 455, 35 N. W. 178; Dollman v. Collier, 92 Tenn. 660, 22 S. W. 741; Ponti v. Eckels, 129 Wis. 26, 108 N. W. 62; Koepke v. Dyer, 80 Mich. 311, 45 N. W. 143.

• In Haight v. Schuck, 6 Kan. 192, it was held that a personal judgment could be rendered, because of a provision of the statute giving the lien claimant the right to> a deficiency judgment. In all these cases in which it is held that a personal judgment may be rendered though the lien fails it of course is also held that the complaint, in connection with or in addition to the allegations for the foreclosure of a mechanics’ lien, must also contain all the necessary facts constituting both ground for relief and all the necessary allegations of an action in assumvsit.

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Bluebook (online)
103 P. 970, 36 Utah 348, 1909 Utah LEXIS 76, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/volker-scowcroft-lumber-co-v-vance-utah-1909.