46 Neb. 207 | Neb. | 1895
Alpheus A. Kinney brought this suit in equity in the district court of Buffalo county against Ida H. Hansen to have established and foreclosed against the latter’s real estate a laborer’s lien which he alleged he had acquired against said real estate by virtue of having performed certain labor for a contractor who in pursuance of a contract with Hansen had erected certain improvements on said real estate. Alpheus A. Kinney had a decree as prayed, and Hansen has prosecuted to this court a petition in error.
The facts found by the learned judge are as follows: (a.) Prior to June, 1889, one T. F. Kinney made a contract with Hansen in and by which he agreed to furnish .the labor and material and erect for her an improvement on her real estate. (6.) T. F. Kinney employed Alpheus A. Kinney to perform labor on said improvement, and that said Alpheus A. Kinney during the months of June and July, 1889, labored on said improvement twenty-eight days at an agreed price of $2.50 per day. (c.) That Alpheus A. Kinney performed no other labor on said improvement until the 17th day of October, 1889, on which day he labored thereon six hours. (d.) That on the 14th day of November, 1889, Alpheus A. Kinney filed in the office of the register of deeds of Buffalo county a sworn statement of the labor performed and the amount due him therefor from said contractor for labor performed on the improvement erected un
It is to be observed that Alpheus A. Kinney performed labor for the contractor on two different occasions: First, during the months of June and July, when he worked twenty-eight days. Second, on the 17th day of October when he worked six hours. More than sixty days intervened between the 31st day of July, the date on which Alpheus A. Kinney stopped work on the improvement, and the 17th day of October, when he again began work on the improvement. This being the case, the presumption is that the labor performed on the 17th of October was so performed under a separate contract from that under which the labor performed on the 31st of July and prior thereto. (Buchanan v. Selden, 43 Neb., 559.) Therefore, to entitle Alpheus A. Kinney to a lien for the labor performed for the months of June and July, he should have filed a sworn statement of the labor performed by him and the amount due him from the contractor therefor and claimed a lien as provided by said section 3667, Compiled Statutes, within sixty days from the 31st of July. The mechanics’ lien law should not be so construed as to enable a laborer to tack one contract to another and procure a lien for all the labor performed under two or more contracts by filing in the office of the register of deeds a sworn statement of the labor performed and the amount due him therefor within sixty days of the date of performing the last labor performed in pursuance of the last contract. (Central Loan & Trust Co. v. O’Sullivan, 44 Neb., 834.) Under the facts found by the district court Alpheus A. Kinney was entitled to a decree giving him a lien upon the property of Hansen for the value of the labor performed on the 17th day of
Reversed and remanded.