St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-04-26
FLOUR CITY EVENTS,
Judge Canty's Views on the
Vetoed Mechanics Lien
Bill.
Cogent Reasons Why It
Should Have Become a
State Law.
James w. Lawrence Elected
to the Vacancy on the
Park Board.
lee Dealers Will Hoist Ppices--
The District Court
Budget.

deal OF comment III various quarters.
Minneapolis people are specially inter-
ested in the fate of the bill, because it
originated in the Hennepin delegation
and because the majority of the work
lngmen of Hennepin county demanded
Just that piece of legislation. A GLOBE
reporter called on Judge Thomas Cantv
yesterday TO get his opinion on the veto,
since he has long been the foremost
champion of the laboring classes and
the most earnest advocate for more pro-
lection to their rights.
Judge Canty, what will be the loss to
the laboring classes on account of Gov.
Merriam's refusing to sign the new lien
law p was asked.
We'll" replied the Judge, sit will
amount to hundreds of thousands of
dollars a year in this city alone. The
present law affords great opportunity to
dishonest men to steal the labor en-
ployed in erecting buildings. Work
men have to settle for what they can
get when they work for such men, and
they generally get about % or 40 cents
on the dollar, if they get anything,
cents on the dollar. The reason is,
that the workingman's claim is
always too small to pay the expense
of filing and forecloSing a lien for it.
His claim is generally from $40 10 $40,
while it is worth at least from $40 to $50
to file and fOrecloSe lien. 1t is easy to
see that his claim is worthless. The
claim OF the material man is generally
much larger, and besides the large lum-
Der, brick and other firms furnishing
material generally employ attorneys by
ha md Cr4
dltlonal TO fOreclOse few extra liens
While our lien law has always given the
laboring man right it has never given
him any practical remedy, except to
foreclose his lien by a bill in equity, as
mortgages are foreclosed, and this
remedy is so slow and expensive that
even mortgages are seldom forecloscd
by it, but are forecloSed by the more
quick and simple method of statutory
advertisement.
ITO file and foreclose a lien I'M
der our present lien law REQUIRES a
skillful attorney who cannot be en-
ployed for any fee which the laboring
man can afford to pay for collecting his
small claim, and, rs to him, the lien
law is a farce. Attorneys who have lit
tie sympathy or regard for the laboring
man, who would chargd him the amount
OF his three or four weeks wages to
look at him, have always assumed to
draw lien laws for laborlng men-attor-
neyS whose only practice under the lien
law has been to defeat liens on techni-
calitieS for wealthy clients who employ
worthless contractors. The remedy
under the present lien law is about
the worst that could possibly be
provided. 1t requires all the liens on
the same structure to be foreciosed in
I,,,11, Il
completed and all the lien-clalmants
brought in, the action must be DELAYED
until they are. The man who digs the
foundation must file his lien within
ninety days and commence suit with
in SIX months; then he must wait until
the last finishing touch is put on every
nook and corner in the building, and
the last lien-claimantS brought i'll before
he can try his action.
To commence such an action on
large building, is generally worth sew
eral hundred dollars. No laboring man
can afford to commence it. MANY of
the men who work on building dur
Ing its different stages of construction,
get through long before the building
is completed; while the material man
continues to furnish material for
much longer time. The consequence
is that the time for commencing suit on
portion of the working mems claims
expires long before it does as to the
claims Of the material men, but no
action is commenced until some ma
terlal man having a large claim is will
Ing to pay the expense of bringing
a suit to foreclose all these liens. By
this time large portion of the laborers
have lost their liens, as they could not
commence the suit themselves. The
others who have not lost it in this man
ner are obliged TO answer in the suit
within twenty days after the papers are
served on them, whether they are
through working or not. A great many
OF them are either too ignorant or too
poor to employ lawyer and pay him
$40 or $50 to answer for them, and they
lose their claims for that reason. Thus
a great majority of the iaboring men
are frozen out before the suit is
commenced by reason of not being
able to commence it within the
| completed. And those who have
not been frozen out in that manner
are frozen out after the suit is COM
menced by not being able TO employ
lawyers to protect their claims after the
papers are served on them. The conse-
quence is that the numerous suits
that are accommodating in our courts are
largely contests between different ma
teral men, the majority of the laboring
men losing their rights in one stage or
the other of the game.
1.-The parties defendant to this suit
keep accommodating term after term, and
even year after year, like the snowfall
which the boy rolls on the ground
until it assumes gigantic proper
tons. As the suit cannot be tried
| until the building is finished,
they may neglect to put on the finish
ing touches, if they SO desire, and the
| suit may be easily prolonged from three
to five years. OF course the laboring
man cannot employ an attorney to
| dance attendance at court term after
term IN this way, and he either dies or
gets exceedingly tired long before the
SUIT is terminated. But if he survives
until the day of the long-deferred judg-
ment, he has still waited in vain. The
owner can secretly settle with the
/ heavy lien holders, the material men,
and as nobody ever bids at foreclosure
| sale except the persons holding the lien
! claims, and as all the lien claimants
| will have to join in the bid or else those
| who buy will have to advance cash to
| the full amount of their bids, the owner
| can settle with few of the heavy ma
terlal lien holding large liens by keep
lllS tueHl HUH JOINING IN the DID 10 pur
chase the property, aud prevent the
property from being bid in by the work
men. because they have no money TO ad-
vance.
Il think the working mans mite
| ought to be better protected; and
country which gives him no better rem
edy an this can hardly be called civ
ilIzed. The bill which has just been
passed by the legislature and killed by
the governor provided remedy that
was so simple and certain that any
cheap lawyer or lawyers clerk, who
knew enough to fill out the blanks in a
deed, could file and foreclose a lien under
| it as easily as he could sue for the same
amount in Justices court. While this
bill gave the lien claimant quick and
simple remedy, it was not harsh or UNI
| just 10 any one. 1t gave every man
oh - laE /, =, - - 49,