Opinion ID: 1824073
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Heading: Iowa Code Chapter 572.

Text: A person who furnishes material or labor upon any building or land by virtue of any contract with the owner shall have a lien upon such building and land belonging to the owner to secure payment for material or labor furnished or labor performed. Iowa Code § 572.2. The entire land upon which any building or improvement is situated shall be subject to a mechanic's lien to the extent of the interest therein of the person for whose benefit such material was furnished or labor performed. Id. at § 572.5. Mechanics' liens are preferred to all other liens, except liens of record prior to the time of the original commencement of the work or improvements. Id. at § 572.18. When required to construe this phrase, we held a person who furnished no labor or material upon the land until after a mortgage was recorded could claim a priority over the mortgage lien if any material or labor upon the building or improvement had been furnished before the mortgage was recorded. Barker's Inc. v. B.D.J. Dev. Co., 308 N.W.2d 78, 81 (Iowa 1981). Thus, all mechanics' lienors were given a priority over the mortgage lien if one mechanic's lienor had commenced work on the property prior to the recording of the mortgage. Id. The consequences of permitting the mechanics' liens to relate back in time to the beginning of the work was discussed in the Barker's opinion. Id. at 81-82. In response to the Barker's decision, the Iowa legislature added two sentences to Iowa Code section 572.18. See Metropolitan Fed. Bank v. A.J. Allen, 477 N.W.2d 668, 672 (Iowa 1991). The following language was added by the legislature: However, construction mortgage liens shall be preferred to all mechanics' liens of claimants who commenced their particular work or improvement subsequent to the date of the recording of the construction mortgage lien. For purposes of this section, a lien is a construction mortgage lien to the extent that it secures loans or advancements made to directly finance work or improvements upon the real estate which secures the lien. 1984 Iowa Acts ch. 1215, § 1. To resolve the priority issues raised in this appeal, we must interpret the language of section 572.18. In our Metropolitan opinion we discussed prior interpretations, general principles, and history of the section. Metropolitan, 477 N.W.2d at 670-72. Unless the statutory language is unambiguous, the court may consider, among other matters, the object sought to be attained, the circumstances under which the statute was enacted, the common law or former statutory provisions, and the consequences of a particular construction. Louie's Floor Covering v. De-Phillips Interests, 378 N.W.2d 923, 927 (Iowa 1985) (citation omitted); Iowa Code § 4.6.