52 Minn. 114 | Minn. | 1892
The sole question in this case is the sufficiency, as between the lien claimants and the owner of the property, of the lien statement filed by the former, under Laws 1889, ch. 200. In plaintiffs’ affidavit it was averred that the amount of their claim was owing “for labor performed and for skill and material furnished in the erection and construction of the basement of a certain school building known and to be known as the ‘Hardy Hall,’ situated on property hereinafter described. * * * That the said Hardy Hall basement is situated on the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section twenty-eight, in township fifty (50) north, of range fourteen (14) west, in St. Louis county, state of Minnesota.”
The only error of description was that the basement should have been described as situated on the northeast quarter, instead of the northwest quarter, of the southwest quarter of said section twenty-eight.
Laws 1889, ch. 200, § 9, provides that “the validity of the lien shall not be affected by any inaccuracy in the statement relating to the property to be charged with it, if such property can be reasonably recognized from the description” given; so that the question resolves itself into the simple inquiry whether the property on which the lien was sought to be established could be reasonably recognized from the description found in the lien statement, notwithstanding the inaccuracy in locating the foundation or basement on the west forty instead of on the east forty of an eighty-acre tract of land owned by the appellants. .We think the court below erred when holding that it could not, and that the description in the statement was fatally defective. Formerly courts were inclined to great strictness when construing lien statements, and especially when determining the sufficiency of description of the property to be charged, but the doctrine now is that, as statutes conferring the right of lien are highly remedial in their nature, a liberal construction is demanded, in order that the objects in view in their enactment be not defeated. Recent legislation is all in the direction of doing substantial justice between the parties, without reference to technicalities in any of the preliminary proceedings. Speaking particularly of the case now before us, it must be borne in mind that the rights of third parties who might have been misled or actually deceived by an insufficient or erroneous description found upon the records, and thereby become entitled to the protection afforded by the registry laws, are not involved. The present controversy is solely between the lien claimants
We need not make special reference to the many cases cited in appellants’ brief, in which very general descriptions of real property have been held adequate in actions to establish and foreclose mechanics’ liens. Many of these cases have been commented upon in the recent case of Cole v. Custer County, etc., Ass’n, (S. Dak.) 52 N. W. Rep. 1086. In a contest between these plaintiffs and the respondent — owner of the land where the work was performed and materials furnished, and still the owner — the premises were described with sufficient certainty, notwithstanding the error in describing the forty acres on which the foundation or basement was built. See Russell v. Hayden, supra; Brown v. La Crosse Gaslight & Coke Co., 16 Wis. 555; De Witt v. Smith, 63 Mo. 263; McNamee v. Rauck, 128 Ind. 59, (27 N. E. Rep. 423;) Willamette Steam Mills Co. v. Kremer, 94 Cal. 205, (29 Pac. Rep. 633;) Seaton v. Hixon, 35 Kan. 663, (12 Pac. Rep. 22;) Martin v. Simmons, 11 Colo. 411, (18 Pac. Rep. 535;) Harker v. Conrad, 12 Serg. & R. 301. Also McAllister v. Welker, 39 Minn. 535, (41 N. W. Rep. 107.)
Order reversed, and ease remanded for further proceedings in accordance with the demand for relief found in the complaint.
(Opinion published 53 N. W. Rep. 1063.)