3 Wash. 750 | Wash. | 1892
The opinion of the court was delivered by
—This action was brought to foreclose a lien for work done and materials furnished in the erectionof a certain store building owned by defendant Otto Quade, and
“Notice is hereby given that Wm. G-. Warren and E. J. Hines, of Pierce county, State of Washington, claim a lien upon lots numbers twenty-eight (28) and twenty-nine (29), in block number seven hundred and nine (709) in the city of Tacoma, county of Pierce, Territory of Washington, for labor performed and assistance rendered in doing tinning and iron work.
“ That the name of the owner or reputed owner is Otto Quado. That Messrs. Moore & Co. employed said Warren & Hines to perform such labor and render such assistance upon the following terms and conditions, to wit: The said Moore & Co. agreed to pay the said Warren & Plines for such labor and assistance in putting on and doing the work, and furnishing the material fortinning and iron work, the sum of four hundred and sixty-five dollars.
“ That said contract has been faithfully performed and fully complied with on the part of said Warren & Hines, who performed labor upon and assisted in tinning and iron work according to their contract aforesaid; that for extra work claimants demand $12.35.
“ That said labor and assistance were so perforaned and rendered upon said building aforesaid between the 15th day of July, 1889, and the 25th day of August, and the rendition of said services was closed on the 25th day of August, and ninety days have not elapsed since that time; that the amount of claimant’s demand for said services is four hundred an d seventy-seven dollars; that no part thereof has been paid except three hundred dollars, andtheroisnowdue and remaining unpaid thereon,after deducting all just credits and offsets, the sum of one hundred and seventy-seven*752 dollars, in which, amount he claims a lien upon said lots aforesaid.”
And, in our opinion, so failed to comply with the statute as to make it void and of no effect for the purposes for which it was given. The provisions of the statute providing what such lien notice shall contain are contained in § 1667, General Statutes, and are substantially as follows:
“Every person must . . . file for record with the county auditor ... a claim containing a statement of his demand, after deducting all just credits and offsets, with the name of the owner or reputed owner, if known, and also the name of the person by whom he was employed, or to whom he furnished the materials, with a statement of the terms and conditions of the contract, if any, and also a description of the property to be charged with the lien, sufficient for identification.”
From which it will be seen that one of the requisites of the notice is, that the property to be charged should be described. This requisite is entirely omitted in the notice under consideration; for while it is true that it states that a lien is claimed upon certain described lots of land, it nowhere appears that the building on which the work was done was situated on said lots. In fact, it does not appear from said notice that the work had been done upon any building, improvement or structure. The reference to the “building aforesaid,” in the clause relating to the time when the work was done, was without force, as no “building aforesaid” anywhere appeared in the notice. This omission is fatal. It needs no argument to show that a lien cannot be maintained on certain lots unless the building upon which the work was done is situated on or connected with said lots. The statute gives a lien upon the building and so much land upon which the same is situated as is necessary to the convenient use thereof, and the notice must show that the lien is claimed upon the building upon which
It will be further seen from said notice that the goods-, were not furnished to the owner directly, but were furnished to a firm named in said notice. In such a case-we think that a statement of the terms and conditions of the contract should show that such a relation existed between the firm to which they were furnished and the-owner as will bring it within the list of those who under-the lien law could, for the purposes thereof, bind the owner. The terms and conditions of the contract should, also include a sufficient description of the materials furnished or work done to enable the owner to intelligently-determine as to the bona fides of such contract, and the reasonableness thereof. The notice in question failed to comply with either of these requirements. It may be-suggested in argument, however, that all these facts are-made to appear by the complaint, and that it is not. necessary that they should be contained in the notice that the only object of the notice is to advise the owner- and all others interested that a lien exists which is to be asserted against certain property. If this were so, it could not excuse a failure to properly describe such property, as without such description there would be no notice to anybody as to what the lien was to be asserted against. We think, however, that the statute, ever so liberally
.Some other criticisms could be made of this lien notice,
The judgment, therefore, will be reversed, and the cause remanded with instructions to dismiss the action.
Andebs, G. J., and Stiles, Dunbab and Scott, JJ., concur.