25 Fla. 765 | Fla. | 1889
This appeal is fi-om an order dissolving an attachment taken out by appellant to enforce a lien on property of appellee under the act of 1885, “ to protect mechanics, laborers and material men, and to provide for the summary collection of moneys due them for wages or materials furnished.” The proceeding was commenced by a praecipe and the issuing of a summons in assumpsit, and, in connection therewith, an affidavit and bond for attachment. A writ of attachment was issued and levied on the property described in the affidavit as the property on which appellant claimed a lien. Appellee moved to dissolve the attachment, because of the insufficiency of both the affidavit and the bond to authorize it, the court sustained the motion, and we are called on to determine whether this was error.
The statute in its first section, so far as that is applicable to this case, provides “that- mechanics and all other persons performing labor or furnishing materials for the construction or repair of any building * * * shall have a lien, separately and jointly, upon the building * * they may have constructed or repaired, or upon any building * * for which they may have furnished material of any kind, an.d on the interest of the owner in the lot or land upon which such building may stand, to the extend of the value of any labor done or material furnished, or for both.” For the en
“ The term attachment is used in several lien laws; in those authorizing procedure in vindication of builders’ and mechanics’ liens, etc.; in statutes authorizing seizures by landlords for rent; but in all these attachments are in vindication of specific liens, and the suits are directed against specific property and are governed by principles applicable to them, though so different from those governing ordinary attachments that the suits must be treated as exceptional with respect to the affidavit.
“ In suits upon specific liens, it is not required that the plaintiffs should show that the defendants are non-residents, or absconders or concealers of property, or that ordinary process would prove unavailing. Such suits, though called attachment proceedings, are like those instituted to enforce mortgage liens, in which the essential allegations of the plaintiff are that the debt is owing and that it is secured by mortgage — not that the defendant is absent, absconded or non-resident. Such attachment suits are, in this respect, directly the opposite of those usually so designated and may therefore well be styled exceptional. * * * *
“ Another marked difference is that in the ordinary attachment suit, there is no description of the property to be attached required in the affidavit; and, indeed, none could therein usually be made, since the plaintiff does not then know what property of the defendant the sheriff will find; but, in attachments to enforce pre-existing liens, description is absolutely necessary.”
Hence, the remedy must be understood as relating to the
Testing the affidavit by the rules of law we have laid down, we find that it sets forth the indebtedness of the Lake Weir Chautauqua and Lyceum Association to the plaintiff and that it is due ;.that it arose under contracts between the parties by which the plaintiff was to furnish material and construct for the Association certain buildings, describing them, and also describing the land on which they were. to be erected; and that he furnished the materials and constructed the buildings, and has a lien on the same and on said land to secure him in payment of the money due, with interest thereon, and reasonable attorney’s fees, and that he filed in the clerk’s office a notice of said lien which was recorded there. As to the objection to this affidavit, -that it is not drawn in accordance with the requirements in any special cases in which attachments were authorized at the time of the passage of the act of 1885, or in accordance with the requirements of section four, or section five, of that act, we have seen that the manner of obtaining attachments in those cases had no application to this case, and that the provisions of the general attachment law must govern; and as to the objection that the provisions of the general law in respect to the affidavits are not followed, we have seen that this is not necessary in all particulars, and that by adapting the affidavit to the facts which, under the act of 1885, authorize an attachment, it will be sufficient. We think the affidavit in this case, the substance of which is given above, states the essential facts which constitute the ground for an attachment under the act, and that the objection, to it was' properly overruled.
. This conclusion is in harmony with the ruling in Branch vs. Branch, 6 Fla., 315, where informalities in the affidavit and bond in a case of replevin under the statute were held to be defects that should not invalidate the proceeding, because they were defects remedied by the fact that the matter required to appear in a particular paper did appear in other papers in the proceeding, all these papers being indispensably connected together. And this is quoted in West vs. Woolfolk, 21 Fla., 189, a case of attachment, as-authority for a similar ruling, the objection to the bond
Against this conclusion is cited the case of Work & Son vs. Titus, 12 Fla., 628. That was a case of attachment where the person who acted in procuring it described himself in the affidavit as agent. The bond he gave was by himself in person, it nowhere appearing therein that he was acting as agent. The court held the bond insufficient and that the defect was not cured by what appeared in the affidavit, saying in the opinions that “ the bond is separate and independent of the affidavit, and must stand or fall upon its own merits.” It often happens that judges use language in their opinions which, while perfectly correct, applied to the case then in hand, is more far-reaching than discriminating law allows'. In the pressure or haste of work there is some excuse for this, but it is to be lamented as the source of much of the confusion charged to the law. The language just quoted seems to be an instance of this. If taken in its broadest sense, it leaves no room for distinction between essentials and non-essentials, as to which Waples (in his work on Attachment, 118) says, “ if there is strict compliance with the statute in essentials, and a substantial compliance with non-essentials, the attachment ought not to be quashed.” In that case the question was whether reference could be made to the affidavit to show that the person making it as agent also executed the bond as agent,
The order dissolving the attachment is reversed, and the ease will be remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.