59 Miss. 198 | Miss. | 1881
delivered the opinion of the court.
The paramount question in this ease is, whether, under “ An Act in Relation to the Lien of Mechanics,” Code 1880, c. 53, public buildings contracted for by the board of supervisors of a county are subject to the lien provided for by said act, and whether the remedies it provides for different classes of persons may be employed against the board of supervisors of a county. If such public buildings are not embraced in the act, and the remedies it gives are not available against a board of supervisors, this bill is not maintainable, for its foundation is the assumption that persons who furnished materials used, and persons employed by the contractor in the erection of the court-house, had the right, created by § 1381 of the Code of 1880, to give notice to the board of supervisors of the amount due them, so as to bind it in the hands of the board, and to authorize the further proceedings authorized by that section. If this assumption is not correct, the bill is demurrable, for, if the notice given to the board of supervisors of the amount due them by the several persons who claim to be paid out of the money due the contractor, did not bind the money in the hands of the officers of the county or oppose any legal obstacle to payment of the money due to the contractor from the county, this suit was improperly brought. In that view it seeks protection not needed, and asks relief from an evil that is not real, but imaginary.
It is clear that the public buildings of a county are not subject to a mechanics’ lien, and cannot be sold to satisfy the demand of the mechanic or material-man. The terms of the law exclude the idea of the liability of such public buildings
Decree affirmed.