84 Wash. 545 | Wash. | 1915
Action by Carstens Packing Company, a corporation, against L. G. McGuire and F. W. McGuire, co-partners, as principals, and Empire State Surety Company, a corporation, as surety, to recover the purchase price of provisions and supplies sold. The McGuire Brothers defaulted. The surety company interposed a demurrer to the complaint, which was overruled. Thereupon it refused to plead further, and it now appeals from a judgment entered against it for the amount claimed.
The action is predicated upon two surety bonds, alleged to have been given in compliance with the requirements of Rem. & Bal. Code, §§ 1169-1161 (P. C. 309 §§ 93, 96, 97), and the only question presented is whether the complaint states a cause of action against the surety company. Re
“The Carstens Packing Company, a corporation, holding a claim against McGuire Bros., contractors doing public work in the city of Anacortes, Washington, in Local Improvement Districts Nos. 77, 78 and 80, in the amount of five hundred and twenty-six and 15-100 ($526.15) dollars, for supplies furnished the said McGuire Bros, for the carrying on of the said contract, herewith gives notice of its said claim against the said McGuire Bros., the city of Anacortes, and the bond filed by said McGuire Bros.”
It will be noticed that two separate contracts are alleged in the complaint, one for improvement district 77, and one for improvement district 80; that separate bonds were written to secure the performance of these several contracts; that three improvement districts, numbered 77, 78, and 80, are mentioned in the notice of claim filed with the city clerk, and that neither the notice nor the complaint segregates the value of meats, provisions, and supplies furnished on account of one district from those furnished on account of another. Appellant insists that the complaint is insufficient, for the reason that the notice of claim embraces three separate local improvement districts and makes a single claim against “the bond,” not bonds, for $526.15; while the complaint alleges that supplies were furnished on account of two contracts in districts 77 and 80, thereby making the claim and complaint too indefinite for enforcement; and that the respondent has failed to segregate the items furnished under the various contracts, or to state the amounts claimed against the respective bonds.
The controlling question before us is whether the notice of appellant’s claim is sufficient to sustain its alleged cause of action. As above stated, the notice sets forth three contracts, but specifies one bond only. There is no apparent method
A notice of claim, under contracts such as these, is quite analogous to the claim of a materialman under the mechanics’ lien law. A lien notice under the latter statute must be sufficiently definite to enable the court to determine the particular property upon which the lien is claimed, and the amount of material supplied and used. In Sarginson v. Turner Inv. Co., 69 Wash. 234, 124 Pac. 379, the plaintiff sought to foreclose a single lien for labor and materials furnished toward the construction of four separate dwelling houses." It appeared that the claimant did not keep separate accounts with these buildings, but that he sought to enforce a single lien against all four houses. We held this could not be done, because of his failure to segregate the specific amount of materials furnished towards and used in each building.
If respondent can present one general notice of claim for supplies furnished towards the fulfillment of two separate
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded with instructions to sustain the demurrer.
Chadwick, Ellis, and Main, JJ., concur.