Court Opinion

ID: 9581740
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:18:09.362826+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:13.278139
License: Public Domain

ORME, Judge
(concurring specially):
I agree with what is said in the main opinion about the applicability of the mechanics’ lien statute and Bailey’s right to foreclose his lien. I am troubled by the *142result, however, in that the adjudged amount of Bailey’s lien, $3,327.90, greatly exceeds the amount Call agreed to pay Gurule for the materials.1 As Call had a deal to procure those materials for much less, it strikes me as unfair to impose this full amount on Call. Call had no knowledge of Bailey and no control over him. Indeed, Call’s contract with Gurule specifically required Gurule to supply the materials himself, on favorable terms. Nor do I see how Call could have done anything to protect himself — short of calling all construction material suppliers in the West and advising them of the fact Gurule had no authority to purchase materials from them for use in Call’s project. As a matter of fairness, I think Bailey’s lien should be limited, aside from recoverable fees and costs, to the amount Call contracted to pay for the materials.
Indeed, a number of reported cases have held that the amount of a subcontractor’s or supplier’s lien is limited by the amount owed on the contract between the owner and contractor. See, e.g., Westinghouse Elec. Supply Co., Inc. v. Electromech, Inc., 119 N.H. 833, 409 A.2d 1141, 1143 (1979); Cashway Lumber Co. v. Langston, 479 P.2d 582, 586 (Okla.1970). “This limitation is demanded as a matter of simple justice and expediency. The owner, having direct relation with the contractor, knows what his liability to him is. Having no such relation with the subcontractor, he does not know what the contractor’s liability to the subcontractor is.” Westinghouse Electric, 409 A.2d at 1143 (quoting Boulia-Gorell Lumber v. East Coast Realty Co., 84 N.H. 174, 148 A. 28, 31 (1929)). “The purpose of limiting a subcontractor’s lien, therefore, is to protect the owner from unknown liability to the subcontractor or materialman and from liability for payments in excess of the amounts owed to the general contractor.” 409 A.2d at 1144.
However, it must' be conceded that these cases turn on particular statutory provisions. Likewise, an old Utah case is consistent with the notion that a supplier’s or subcontractor’s lien may not exceed the amount the property owner contracted to pay. See Sierra Nevada Lumber Co. v. Whitmore, 24 Utah 130, 66 P. 779, 781 (1901) (“subcontractor, by virtue of the original contract, is entitled, under his subcontract, to a lien, within the limit of the original contract price”). But Sierra also turned, in relevant part, on a statutory provision which appears to have been deleted at some point from the Utah Code and is not in the present version of our mechanics’ lien statute.2 See Utah Code Ann. §§ 38-1-1 to -26 (1988).
Unfortunately, in my view, the statutory scheme currently in effect in Utah does not protect a property owner from potentially paying more to a subcontractor or supplier than he agreed to pay to his contractor. On the contrary, the property owner is only protected to the extent that he cannot be liened for more than the “value” of the materials. Utah Code Ann. § 38-1-3 (1988). Such protection is no doubt sufficient in the routine case, but it is inadequate in a case like this one, where a property owner contracts for materials at greatly discounted prices and ends up being liable for the full value of those materials through no fault of his own.

. That amount was $2,600 according to Call’s uncontroverted testimony. The findings prepared by Bailey’s counsel mistakenly recite a figure of $1,800.

. The provision, Rev.Stat. § 1373, provided in part as follows: "In case of a contract between an owner and a contractor, the lien shall extend to the entire price, and such contract shall operate as a lien in favor of all persons except the contractor to the extent of the whole contract price....’’ Sierra, 66 P. at 781.