Court Opinion

ID: 9561616
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:12:58.315784+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:02.180029
License: Public Domain

COMPTON, J„
dissenting.
*579The majority does not address the issues debated by the parties, but discusses issues never raised in the case. The landowners, on brief, state that “the only question presented on appeal” is whether “a Mechanic’s Lien claimed for ‘road clearing and grading’ on ‘timber, raw land and open fields’ which have been subdivided into individual unimproved lots on a recorded plat, which lien fails to apportion the claim among the individual lots benefited by such roads as required by Virginia Code Section 43-3(b), [is] valid and enforceable?” (emphasis added). The landowners argue that subsection (b) applies and that no lien in favor of the claimant “is created by Section 43-3(a) because there is no building or other structure permanently annexed to the freehold located anywhere within the boundaries of the sixty-six lots upon which Cole claims his lien” (footnote omitted) (emphasis added).
Disagreeing with the landowners, the majority decides that subsection (b) is not applicable, noting that the claimant failed to apportion his lien as required by that subsection.
Yet, the majority concludes that subsection (a) effectively gives the claimant a lien on lands not covered by this contract. That argument has never been advanced by the landowners. The landowners merely have argued that no lien is created by subsection (a) because there “is no building or other structure permanently annexed” to the realty located anywhere within the boundaries of the lots upon which the contractor claims its lien. But, Code § 43-2 states that “excavation” shall be deemed a “structure permanently annexed to the freehold,” clearly authorizing a lien on the lots under these circumstances.
This case involves a single contract for the entire work to be performed on the tract as a whole; there are no provisions in the agreement allocating a specific portion of the contract price to any individual lot. Second, this is a contest between the owners and the general contractor; no interests of third parties are involved.
Under these circumstances, the law is settled that a joint or blanket lien is valid and the lien claimant has no duty to apportion in the memorandum the amount of the claim. Sergeant v. Denby, 87 Va. 206, 12 S.E. 402 (1890). See United Virginia Mortgage Corp. v. Haines, Inc., 221 Va. 1047, 1050, 277 S.E.2d 187, 189 (1981); PIC Company v. First Union Bank, 218 Va. 915, 920, 241 S.E.2d 804, 807 (1978); Weaver v. Harland Corp., 176 Va. 224, 226-27, 234, 10 S.E.2d 547, 548, 551 (1940). Thus, the contrac*580tor’s lien for this work properly was perfected under § 43-3(a).
For these reasons, I would affirm the judgment of the trial court.