143 P. 621 | Or. | 1915
Opinion on the Merits
On the Merits.
(151 Pac. 733.)
Department 2. Statement by Mr. Justice Harris.
The defendants E. A. Pearson and Hilma Pearson are husband and wife, and own lots 26, 27 and 28 in block 2, Second Electric Addition, in the City of Portland. The house in which they lived is No. 385 East Fifty-First Street, and is located on lot 27. L. B. Kollock & Co. is a corporation, and is engaged in selling building material. The defendants F. J. Berger and Albert Berger are partners doing business under the firm name of Williams Avenue Planing Mill Company. The Pearsons remodeled their house. Kollock & Co. and the Williams Avenue Planing Mill Company furnished materials for the house, and afterward filed liens to secure the value of the materials supplied. This suit was commenced by Kollock & Co. and resulted in a decree foreclosing the two liens mentioned. E. A. Pearson and Hilma Pearson appealed.
Affirmed. Behearing Denied.
For appellants there was a brief over the names of Mr. A. W. Lafferty, Messrs. Powers & Lord and Mr. Frank C. Hanley, with an oral argument by Mr. Lafferty.
For respondent there was a brief over the names of Messrs. Kollock & Zollinger and Messrs. Lewis & Lewis, with oral arguments by Mr. Arthur H. Lewis and Mr. John K. Kollock.
delivered the opinion of the court.
“Mr. Pearson told Mr. Lindquist to order all the material that was needed on the job, and then Mrs. Pearson said that my husband is busy, and he will not have time to attend to the orders, so that we will have to leave it to you entirely to do all the ordering for this entire job.”
Mrs. Pearson receipted for most of the'disputed materials as the deliveries were made, and the receipts signed by her informed her of the kind and amount of material and that the Williams Avenue Planing Mill Company was making the deliveries. Lindquist had sufficient authority to bind the owners.
“That the building to which claimants furnished and delivered said material is a two (2) story frame dwelling-house, No. 385 East Fifty-First Street, constructed upon lot twenty-six (26), block two (2), Second Electric Addition, now in the City of Portland, County of Multnomah, State of Oregon.”
The building is not located on lot 26, but is on lot 27, although the Pearsons are the owners of lots 26, 27 and 28. Nothing but a small chicken-coop was on lot 26. The number of the house is correct, but the description of the lot is incorrect. The block and addition are correctly stated, but the description of the lot, as given in the notice, does not correspond with the designation of the house. If, however, the incorrect description of the lot is rejected, a sufficient description remains to identify the thing intended to be described, because there is enough in the description to enable a party familiar with the locality to identify the premises intended to be described with reasonable certainty: 27 Cyc. 201. The controversy is between the owners and the materialmen, and is unembarrassed by any claims of third persons or innocent purchasers. Measured by the standard fixed in the parallel case of Harrisburg Lbr. Co. v. Washburn, 29 Or. 150 (44 Pac. 390), the description of the property is sufficient to support the lien.
“It cannot be expected that a materialman would be obliged to watch the progress of a structure, to see that every stick of timber or other material so supplied by him was used therein; and, if the owner would defeat a foreclosure of the lien for the amount demanded, the burden should be cast upon him to allege and prove that some of the material, if the accurate amount thereof was capable of computation in advance, or, if not, that an unreasonable quantity thereof, remained unused after the building was fully completed, or that, without his consent, it had been removed from the building site.”
The decree of the Circuit Court is affirmed.
Aeeirmed. Eehearing Denied.
Lead Opinion
Opinion by
The temporary injunction heretofore issued will therefore be continued in force until this cause is finally heard and determined upon appeal.
Application for Injunction Allowed.