31 Conn. App. 15 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1993
The plaintiff
First Constitution Bank (FCB) instituted the present action to recover sums due under a commercial revolving loan note, which was secured by a mortgage on certain parcels of land located in Greenwich and owned by Harbor Village Limited Partnership (Harbor Village) and William O. Rockwood, Jr., trustee. First Marine Corporation, the assignee of the mortgage, was substituted as the plaintiff.
The mortgaged property consists of six contiguous parcels located along the Mianus River on River Road in Greenwich. Three of the parcels are owned by Harbor Village; the other three parcels are owned by Rock-wood. Each parcel bears its own street address. The loan proceeds, in the amount of $21,500,000, were obtained for the purpose of financing the construction by Harbor Village of a marina facility and dockominium at the site of the six parcels. The loan was advanced by FCB in two stages. First, on or about December 29,
On March 3, 1989, after the recording of the M & F mortgages but before the recording of the FCB mortgage, the defendant began rendering services and furnishing materials to the project and continued to do so until February 13, 1990. On April 16, 1990, the defendant filed a certificate of mechanic’s lien with the Greenwich town clerk. The lien certificate described the property as “situated in the Town of Greenwich, County of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, on a lot of land belonging to said HARBOR VILLAGE LIMITED PARTNERSHIP and WILLIAM ROCK-WOOD, JR., TRUSTEE, and bounded as follows: SEE EXHIBIT ‘A’ ATTACHED.” Only a two page document was filed; Exhibit A was not attached. The plaintiff claims that the property subject to the mechanic’s lien is not described as required by statute, and therefore the lien is invalid. We agree.
“Because the mechanic’s lien is a creature of statute, a lienor must comply with statutory requirements in order to perfect his claim.” H & S Torrington Associates v. Lutz Engineering Co., 185 Conn. 549, 553, 441 A.2d 171 (1981). The provisions of the statute creating the mechanic’s lien must be complied with in order to validate that lien. See City Lumber Co. of Bridgeport, Inc. v. Borsuk, 131 Conn. 640, 645, 41 A.2d 775 (1945); Swift & Upson Lumber Co. v. W. L. Hatch Co., 115 Conn. 494, 498, 162 A. 19 (1932); White v. Washington School District, 42 Conn. 541, 545 (1875).
“Although the mechanic’s lien statute creates a statutory right in derogation of the common law; Camputaro v. Stuart Hardwood Corporation, 180 Conn. 545, 550, 429 A.2d 796 (1980); Gruss v. Miskinis, 130 Conn. 367, 370, 34 A.2d 600 (1943); its provisions should be liberally construed in order to implement its remedial purpose of furnishing security for one who provides services or materials. . . . Our interpretation, however, may not depart from reasonable compliance with the specific terms of the statute under the guise of a liberal construction.” (Citations omitted.) Nickel Mine Brook Associates v. Joseph E. Sakal, P.C., 217 Conn. 361, 364-65, 585 A.2d 1210 (1991). While the statute’s
The language of General Statutes § 49-34 is plain and unambiguous. It requires the recorded certificate to describe the premises in order for the mechanic’s lien to be valid. In the present case, the certificate of lien recorded on the land records contained no description of the property purportedly subject to the lien other than an identification of the town in which the property was located. Therefore, the requirement of § 49-34 was not satisfied. Lack of prejudice to the plaintiff is irrelevant. Whether the plaintiff or anyone else was actually misled by the omission is of no consequence. Nor is the deficiency excused by the fact that the only land owned by Harbor Village and Rockwood was located on River Road and a reasonable party searching the records could conclude that a mechanic’s lien applied to that property. A substantial or reasonable compliance argument is also unavailing because here there was no compliance at all.
The judgment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
The substitute plaintiff, First Marine Corporation, appeals as successor in interest to First Constitution Bank. We will refer to it in this opinion as the plaintiff.
For purposes of this appeal, the term defendant refers only to Fair-field Dock Company, Inc.
Following Harbor Village’s default, FCB began the present foreclosure action. The defendant filed its answer alleging the priority of its mechanic’s lien over the plaintiff’s mortgage. The defendant also began its own foreclosure of its lien, filing a notice of lis pendens on the land records and serving Harbor Village and Rockwood. The lis pendens contained the names of only some of the defendants, not including FCB; the caption contained the words “Et al.”
The recording fees paid by Fairfield reflect that only two pages of the intended five page document were filed. The original two page certificate that was recorded was returned to Fairfield’s attorney. No action was taken to correct the error so as to comply with the statute.