22 P. 406 | Cal. | 1889
This is an action by materialmen to enforce a lien for material furnished to certain original contractors to be used under their contract “to construct the excavations, embankments, tunnels, box culverts, rubble walls, and such bridges as might be designated by the chief engineer of said railroad company on all that portion of the located line of railroad, then projected, of the San Francisco and San Rafael Railroad lying between the town of San Rafael and Point Tiburon in Marin county,” with certain exceptions not necessary here to repeat. The case turns entirely upon the question of whether or not the court erred in sustaining defendant’s objection to plaintiff’s offer in evidence of “The Claim of Lien,” which was filed in the county recorder’s office of Marin county, on the eighteenth day of June, 1884, a copy of which is set forth in the record. When this claim of lien was offered in evidence the defendant objected thereto on several grounds, one of which was: “It does not appear to have been filed within thirty days after the completion of the work.” This ground of objection seems to be good. The plaintiff does not claim to be other than a materialman, or a subcontractor for the furnishing- of material, under an original contractor. He was, therefore, required by the statute, if he claimed a lien, to file the same within thirty days after the completion of the work. The claim was filed June 18, 1884. The evidence shows, and upon that point there does not seem to be any material conflict, that the last work done under the contract, or by the contractors, was on the 2d of June, 1884, and that for two weeks prior to that time they had not been working on the contract work, but had been engaged in removing debris which the contractor, without right, and in violation of instructions, had dumped on the land of a stranger, and for which he was liable in damages. The men were instructed to do this work on the seventeenth day of May, and the contract work was presumably finished at that time. Even if it was not, it appears clear from the evidence that it was finished, or that no more was done on it after the
An objection was also taken on the ground that the description of the materials furnished was too indefinite and insufficient to sustain a lien. The only description of the materials was that they consisted of “nails, spikes, iron, steel, picks, shovels, and other like material.” This is altogether too indefinite and uncertain to sustain a lien, and especially since it is conceded to be the law that a lien can only be maintained for the material which was actually used in the work contracted to be done. We understand that to mean, in a case like this, that which became by its use a part of the completed work. That, certainly, could not include tools of trade— “picks, shovels, and other like material.” And it would not necessarily include any one of the items mentioned in the claim. As well might a house be held under a lien for a chest of carpenter’s tools sold to the man who had contracted to build it as a railroad for picks and shovels used by a contractor in grading it, or for nails, spikes, iron, steel, and other like material used by him for the purpose of erecting temporary habitations and sheds for the occupancy of his men and animals while engaged in the work. These objections being fatal to the claim of lien, as offered, we need not consider other objections which were urged. Our conclusion is that the court did not err in sustaining the objection to the introduction of this claim of lien. The foreclosure of the
We concur: Works, J.; Paterson, J.