63 Pa. 191 | Pa. | 1870
The opinion of the court was delivered, January 3d 1870, by
We agree with the learned judge of the court below, that a lumber dealer, who has engaged to furnish lumber for a house, is not such a contractor, under the Mechanic’s Lien Law, as can charge the building with a lien to another from whom
We also held in Singerly v. Doerr, that it is not necessary there should be but a single contractor for the whole building. We said: “ It is not an objection that Ketchum was a contractor only for the carpenter work and lumber of the house. The law does not require the contractor to be such for the whole building. The owner may make his contracts for different parts of the work— as with one for the stone work, with another for the brick work, a third for the wood work, and, if the building be a factory, with a fourth for the machinery. There is no reason why a workman, or a material-man, employed by each contractor to do work or furnish materials within the scope of his contract, should not be entitled to a lien for it, as well as if there were but one contractor for the whole building. Except in the principal cities it is rare that men contract for the whole building. Generally contracts are made with them according to their line of business, as for masonry, carpentry, &c.”
That case not being reported had not come to the eye of counsel and is not adverted to, but it is requisite we should notice it, to distinguish it from the case in hand. An architect or builder is the agent of the owner for erection, and we can readily perceive how, as agent, he should have power to subject the building to a lien to the workmen and material-men. This is not so with a contractor, who builds on his own credit. Rut as soon as the law classed him with the architect and builder, and gave a lien for the work and materials procured by him to be done and furnished on the credit of the building, it clearly intended this as a protection to the workmen and material-men, aS much as if they had acted under the order of a mere agent. The purpose was to prevent these meritorious claims from being defeated by a change of character in the employer from an architect or builder to a contractor \ a formality which might be used in every instance to defeat liens. Now if this clear legislative provision to charge the building with a lien for work and materials procured through a contractor, can be defeated by making two contracts for the building instead of one — for example one contract for the masonry and another for the carpentry — the provision in the statute is worthless, for it can
Judgment affirmed.