Yeager v. Nutzotin Placer Co.

13 Alaska 136
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedJanuary 4, 1951
DocketNo. A-5870
StatusPublished

This text of 13 Alaska 136 (Yeager v. Nutzotin Placer Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yeager v. Nutzotin Placer Co., 13 Alaska 136 (D. Alaska 1951).

Opinion

DIMOND, District Judge.

This is an action for enforcement of an asserted lien arising from labor performed under written contract. A part of the property on which the plaintiff’s lien is claimed has heretofore been sold under judgment of foreclosure of a certain chattel mortgage given by defendant, Nutzotin Placer Company, Inc. to the defendant herein named as Yukon Equipment Company, but the correct corporate title of which appears to be Yukon Equipment, Inc. The chattel mortgage foreclosure judgment was rendered in an action, No. A-6001, of this Court, in which the plaintiff herein [139]*139was not named as a party. The property involved is situated on or near Bonanza and Little Eldorado Creeks, in the Copper Center Recording Precinct, Third Judicial Division of Alaska.

The principal matters in dispute are five in number:

1. The amount earned by the plaintiff and now due him from the defendants, or any of them;

2. The property against which the plaintiff’s lien, if any, may be asserted;

3. The respective priorities of (a) the plaintiff’s claim of lien, and (b) the chattel mortgages of defendant, Yukon Equipment, Inc., including the judgment of foreclosure above mentioned;

4. The effect of the failure of the Yukon Equipment, Inc. in Cause No. A-6001 to make the plaintiff in this action a party to Cause No. A-6001; and

5. The jurisdiction of the Court to grant personal judgment where claim of lien has largely failed.

Statement of facts. The facts as ascertained from the pleadings and testimony may best be summarized by setting forth the events bearing on the case at hand, in chronological order:

On or about August 29, 1947, the Nutzotin Placer Company, Inc., executed a purchase money chattel mortgage to and in favor of the Lomen Equipment Company predecessor to Yukon Equipment, Inc., covering the pump and tractor and associated equipment which is in part the subject of this action. This mortgage was filed in the office of the United States Commissioner of the Precinct in which the property was situated, at Copper Center, Alaska, on September 25, 1947. This mortgage became due on October 15, 1948.

A renewal affidavit of the mortgage of August 29, 1947, was made on December 31, 1948, but the record is barren of any statement showing when the renewal affidavit was [140]*140filed in the recording office. Under our applicable law, Section 22-6-6, Alaska Compiled Laws Annotated, 1949, hereinafter referred to as A.C.L.A., the renewal affidavit was required to be made and filed within 30 days prior to the expiration of one year of the due date of the mortgage; hence, it follows that the renewal affidavit could have been validly made and filed only within 30 days prior to October 15, 1949. No proof appears that any renewal affidavit of the 1947 mortgage was made and filed during that period, and, therefore, it would appear that the renewal affidavit dated December 31, 1948 may be disregarded.

On April 12, 1949, a new chattel mortgage, the one on which Cause No. A-6001 was based, was made, and it was filed in the recording office on April 22, 1949. That mortgage by its terms, became due on August 1, 1949, and hence the renewal affidavit of that mortgage was required to be made and filed within 30 days prior to August 1, 1950.

The foreclosure suit was brought upon the 1949 chattel mortgage, Cause No. A-6001, on February 17, 1950, and judgment was rendered on April 28,- 1950, for $7,028.99 with interest at 8% per annum from April 12, 1949. Execution was issued June 6, 1950. The property mortgaged was sold, so far as the record shows, on June 24, 1950, and the other property of the defendants was sold under deficiency judgment on July 28, 1950. It is, therefore, apparent that all of these proceedings took place before the expiration of the date of renewal of the chattel mortgage of April 12, 1949.

Meanwhile on April 21 or 22, 1949, the plaintiff commenced work for the defendant Nutzotin Placer Company, Inc. Since the 1949 chattel mortgage of the Yukon Equipment, Inc. was filed in the recording office on April 22, 1949, it is evident that the mortgage was not filed prior to the date upon which plaintiff commenced to work under his contract of employment. Plaintiff’s work was concluded [141]*141on October 9, 1949 and he commenced this suit for foreclosure of the lien on November 21, 1949.

In his complaint the plaintiff alleges that on or about April 13, 1949, he entered into a written contract with “defendants” to perform labor; that he did the work required of him and that as a result there is due plaintiff from defendants the sum of $2,433.00, for which amount he claims a lien upon property described in his notice of claim of lien filed in the office of the official recorder on November 8, 1949, as follows:

“1 — HD 10 Allis Chalmers Tractor
1 — Delaval Diesel Pump
2 — Log cabins
1 — Small house built of lumber, one cache, built of lumber, together with tools and mining equipment, including approximately ISO feet of pipe (iron), measuring approximately 10 inches in diameter, sluice boxes, two giant nozzles, a welder, one cook stove, cooking utensils, food and supplies on hand at the camp, six steel cots, four mattresses, three gasoline lamps, more than twelve barrels of diesel oil — all located at the fork of Little Eldorado Creek and Bonanza Creek, approximately 2% miles up Bonanza Creek from the old town of Bonanza, Alaska, in the Copper Center Recording District of the Third Judicial Division of the Territory of Alaska.”

In his complaint the plaintiff not only claims a lien upon the property described in his notice of claim of lien which was recorded in the local recording office, but also upon:

“all mining claims belonging to- the defendants located in the Copper Center Recording Precinct of the Third Judicial Division of the Territory of Alaska.”

[142]*142The plaintiff in his complaint further alleges that the defendant, Yukon Equipment, Inc., and other defendants, claim to have some right, title or interest in or lien upon the property described in the complaint but that such lien, if any,-is secondary tO' plaintiff’s lien for work and labor performed and plaintiff asks that defendants be required to coma into Court and set up and prove their claims if any they have.

Defendants, W. E. James and Agnes T. James, disclaim any interest in any of the property.

The defendant, Nutzotin Placer Company, Inc., in its answer, admits the execution of the written contract but denies there is due to plaintiff thereunder the sum of $2433.00.

The defendant, Yukon Equipment, Inc., in its separate answer, denies, for lack of information and belief, the averments of the complaint and alleges that by virtue of a prior chattel mortgage defendant then had a prior lien in the amount of $7,028.99, upon the DeLaval Centrifugal Pump and the Allis Chalmers Tractor and other attached and associated equipment.

1. The amount earned by plaintiff and now due him, if any, from the defendants, or any of them.

Plaintiff’s contract of employment with defendant, Nutzotin Placer Company, Inc., was signed by the defendants, W. E. James and Agnes T.

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13 Alaska 136, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yeager-v-nutzotin-placer-co-akd-1951.