84 Mo. 237 | Mo. | 1884
This is an action by the plaintiffs, as materialmen, against defendants, Southerland and Jackson, as contractors, and defendants, A. M. Plitt and Lewis Plitt, as owners of certain realty, to recover judgment against the contractors, and to enforce a mechanic’s lien against the property. The petition states the facts which give a lien under the law. The facts were put in issue by the answer, and upon a trial by jury, the plaintiffs recovered judgment against the contractors in the full amount of their demand, $795.25, with interest, and a special judgment against the property described in the petition, as provided in the lien law* from which the defendants,' A. M. Plitt and Lewis Plitt, as owners of the property, prosecute their appeal. It is unnecessary to notice anything which does not bear upon the points presented to us for decision.
I. The defendants objected to the notice of the intended lien which reads as follows:
11 To Mrs. A. M. Plitt:
“Take notice that we hold a claim against your double two-story brick building, situated on the northeast corner of Twelfth and Central streets, in Kansas City, Missouri, to the amount of seven hundred and' ninety-five dollars and twenty-five cents ($795.25), the same being due to us from J. S. Southerland '& Co., contractors ivith you for the erection of said building, and being for lumber and building materials furnished to J. S. Southerland & Co., and used in said bidding.
“Henry, Barker &Coatsavorth,
“Per W. J. Strong, Agent.
“Dated this 16th day of December, 1880.”
II. It is, also, objected that the account does not comply with the law in disclosing the character of the items composing it. This objection is not well taken. It is true that in most of the items only figures are used, and not words, to indicate the thing as well as the amount furnished. But the heading of the account shows that the figures relate to lumber. The account evidently conforms with the usage prevailing with merchants in the lumber business, as in many other departments of trade, to dispense with words when the figures indicate the meaning supplied by words. For instance, the following items; “May 8, 1880 — 3, 2, 12,16, 96____ 17-|-----1.68,” are known by business men to mean, when applied to a lumber account, that on the eighth day of May, 1880, there were furnished three pieces of lumber 2x12 inches in thickness and width, and sixteen feet long, aggregating ninety-six feet of lumber, which, at $17£ per thousand, result in $1.68 for the value thereof.
III. It is objected that the plaintiffs are not entitled to a lien for a fence or a pavement. The court ruled that the plaintiff was entitled, under our law, to a lien for a fence and a pavement, provided they were included in the same contract by which the dwelling and stable were erected. Under our statute, which gives a lien for “buildings,” “erections,” and “improvements” upon land, to the extent of an acre in the country and a lot in the city, it has been the practice to adjudge a lien for fences and walks on the premises when they have been constructed as appurtenant to the buildings, and at the same time. They have been so adjudged in other states under statutes more limited in the words employed than our own. I see no merit in the appeal. Accordingly the judgment is affirmed.