122 Cal. 103 | Cal. | 1898
The superior court rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff for the foreclosure of a mechanic’s lien upon certain property of the defendant, and afterward, upon motion of the defendant, granted a new trial. From this order the plaintiff has appealed. The motion was made upon several statutory grounds, but in its order the court limited the ground upon which it was granted to the insufficiency of the notice of lien which was filed with the county recorder, in that it failed to contain a statement of the “terms, time given, and conditions of the contract.”
,The plaintiff contracted directly with the defendant for the erection of a one-story, five-roomed cottage upon a lot of land belonging to the defendant, for the sum of seven hundred and forty dollars, of which five hundred dollars was to be paid as the work progressed, and the balance when the house was finished. The defendant paid to the plaintiff two hundred and fifty dollars during the progress of the work, and the further sum of three hundred dollars at its close, and upon his refusal to pay the remainder the plaintiff, within thirty days after the completion of the building, filed with the county recorder his claim of lien, which contained the following statement of the terms, time given, and conditions of said contract: “That said house was to be erected, to consist of five rooms, and to be finished in a workmanlike manner, for the agreed price of seven hundred and forty dollars. That in addition extra work for the agreed price of five dollars "was performed.” The respondent contests the sufficiency of this notice, upon the ground that it does not state that the plaintiff agreed to furnish all the material and labor for the house (except painting), and does not state that the contract price was to be paid in installments as the work progressed.
The provision of section 1187 of the Code of Civil Procedure, that the notice of lien shall contain a statement of the “terms, time given, and conditions of the contract,” is not to be construed as requiring a statement of all the details of the contract, but is to receive a reasonable construction, in view of the purpose for which it is manifestly required. The statute is a reme
• The express limitation of the ground upon which the order granting a new trial was made, to the insufficiency of the notice of lien, forecloses the defendant from contending that the order may have heen granted upon the ground that the evidence was insufficient to support the findings. The errors of law presented by the respondent need no consideration.
The order is reversed.
Garoutie, J., and Van Fleet, J., concurred.
Hearing in Bank denied.