Court Opinion

ID: 9682522
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 08:12:34.029028+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:39.857399
License: Public Domain

concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the principal opinion, but do not want to be understood as agreeing to the proposition that respondent’s adoption of an appellant’s statement of facts in an appellate brief is an admission of each and every fact included in the statement of facts. He admits for the purpose of the appeal that the record showed the facts stated by the appellant, but he does not admit the truth of those facts.
That part of the opinion is actually unnecessary. The so-called “admission” was used to prove that the materials were delivered and incorporated into the structure within the four months preceding the filing of the lien, § 429.080, RSMo 1978. Appellant’s point specifically is, as stated in his brief, that “no evidence was received on the issue of the incorporation of the materials into the improvement”. There was such evidence, however, in the testimony of Mitchell’s operations manager, who visited the site on January 31 and who testified that the building materials supplied by Mitchell had all been incorporated into the building on that date. It is not necessary to resort to any admission for that fact.
As to the date of incorporation (to bring that fact within the four-month period preceding the filing of the lien), that is another matter. It is frustrating to search this record for inferential proof of that which was subject to direct and positive proof. There was proof of shipment of two pieces of flashing as late as December 18. There is no direct proof of its receipt, but I conclude it is sufficient that Mitchell’s operations manager inspected the building on January 31 and testified: “I don’t know of anything that is missing. They got the entire building package, and from looking at the building when I saw it, it is all there.” Thus it may be inferred that the materials shipped on December 18 were received by the purchaser and incorporated into the building between December 18 and January 31. (The January 4 receipt referred to in the principal opinion, apparently for the goods shipped on December 18, is omitted from the exhibits filed here by respondent. It should have been included in the record, although excluded from evidence by the trial court, Supreme Court Rule 73.01(c)(3).) Proof of incorporation of the materials between the dates of December 18 and January 31 bring the filing of the lien within the four-month period of § 429.080, and supports the trial court’s judgment.
The statement from the brief was also used to prove Trans-Missouri was agent for Summit in making the contract with Mitchell. The court found, however, that Mitchell was a subcontractor (as it plainly was). Its contract was with Trans-Missouri, the contractor, not with Summit, the owner. *146The proof and finding of Trans-Missouri’s agency would be necessary only if Mitchell were claiming that he was an original contractor. The proof of Trans-Missouri’s agency for Summit was superfluous, and so is that part of the opinion which holds that the fact was admitted by Mitchell when it adopted Summit’s statement of facts in its brief in the earlier appeal. It is true that the trial court in this case did make a specific finding that Trans-Missouri was Summit’s agent, but that finding is inconsistent with the rest of the findings and with the judgment, adds nothing to the findings or the judgment, may be treated as surplusage and ignored.