41 Ind. App. 687 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1908
This suit was instituted against appellants to foreclose a mechanic’s lien on a gas-well, including tubing and piping, in Tipton county. The amended complaint is in one paragraph, and avers that the appellant-company is incorporated under the laws of the State of Indiana for the purpose of exploring for natural gas and oil, laying pipes and mains for the transportation of the same, and obtaining leases and easements for said purpose; that said appellant contracted with Norman W. Gilchrist to drill a well on the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section ten, township twenty-two north, range five east, in Tipton county, on land owned by Jane Vice; that appellee is an oil-well driller and was engaged b3r said contractor to drill said well; that he entered upon his duties on said well on November 16, 1903, and continued until the completion of the same on December 11, 1903, working in all eighteen days; that said well since its completion is a producing gas-well, and is attached and utilized by said compan3r; that the amount due appellee for said work is $81, and that the same is due and unpaid; that, within sixty days of the time of completing said work, appellee filed in the recorder’s office of Tipton county a notice in writing of his intention to hold a mechanic’s lien therefor upon said premises, the gas-well thereon, the tubing, piping and gas-well derrick, which notice is made a part of said complaint and is as follows:
“To Windfall Natural Gas, Mining & Oil Company, and all others concerned:
You are hereby notified that I intend to hold a mechanic’s lien on gas-well, tubing and piping located in the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section nine, township twenty-two, range five east, in Tip-ton county, Indiana, as well as upon the derrick house reeentfy erected thereon by me, for the sum of $81, for*689 work and labor done and materials furnished by me in the erection and construction of said house, which work and labor done, and materials furnished, was done and furnished by me at your special instance and request, and within the last sixty days.
William W. Roe.”
The complaint then avers that said notice specifies that the claim is for “work and labor performed and material furnished in the erection of a derrick house; ’ ’ that appellee did no't perform any labor or furnish any material in the erection of the derrick house for appellant, but that the work and labor performed by him, and for which he sought to take his lien, was for work and labor performed in the construction of the gas-well, as described, for appellant company, but by mistake he failed properly to specify said fact; that he did not discover such mistake until after he had ordered suit brought to foreclose the same, and he asks to be permitted to reform his said notice in this respect. The complaint also avers that the notice, by mistake and oversight in the description of the land, erroneously designates said section as section nine, when it should have been section ten of the township and range' set out; that, at the time of the drilling of the gas-well in question, no gas-well was being drilled by said appellant company in section nine, nor has said company a gas-well in said section nine, to appellee’s knowledge, and that the lien sought to be foreclosed was for the labor and work performed on the gas-well in the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of said section ten; that said mistake in the description was not discovered until after the sixty days had expired for the filing of the lien, and he was therefore unable to correct said error. Prayer for judgment against said appellant for a foreclosure of said lien on the gas-well, tubing, piping and fixtures, situated as last described, for the sale of the interest in said real estate which said appellant may have, if any, and that said notice be reformed.
The case last cited is as strong a case for appellee as any case we have discovered; but the basis of the decision in that case marks the distinction between this case and others of like character in this State. In that case the contractor gave notice of a lien on a certain quarter section in Wayne
Judgment reversed.