44 Minn. 68 | Minn. | 1890
The action is to foreclose a mechanic’s lien accruing between May 26. and June 10, 1889. The verified statement or claim for a lien was recorded November 13,1889. By the law in force when the lien accrued, the claimant had six months from the date of the last item within which to record the statement. By the mechanics’ lien law passed April 24, 1889, (Laws 1889, c. 200,) the
The only question made in this case is, which law — that of 1889, or the prior law — controls in respect to the time in this case for recording the statement ? The cases of Bailey v. Mason, 4 Minn. 430, (546,) and Dunwell v. Bidwell, 8 Minn. 18, (34,) cited by appellant, have’no bearing on the interpretation of the act of 1889; for the repealing clause in the act considered in those cases (that of 1858) contained no reservation. Those cases decided that the unqualified repeal, by the act of 1858, of the prior law, took away all claims for lien under the prior law which had not been perfected by passing into judgments. The saving clause in the act of 1889 was intended to avoid such a result; and, to make sure of preventing it, the saving is, not merely that rights to liens under the prior law existing when the act should go into operation should not be taken away, but that they should not be affected at all. And so careful was the legislature to avoid touching prior liens, that pending suits to enforce such liens are not to be affected, but are to go on, — of course, according to the procedure under the prior law; and even future suits to enforce such prior liens are not required to conform, except so far as practicable, to the procedure established by the new law. In view of the exceeding care shown by the legislature in these provisos- to avoid affecting existing rights, it is impossible to conclude that it intended to cut down the time allowed by the prior law to record the statement for the purpose of preserving and continuing the lien from 6 months to 90 days.
Order affirmed.