Court Opinion

ID: 9695156
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:09:51.983573+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:07.728803
License: Public Domain

STAKELY, Justice
(dissenting).
The suit was filed by J. W. Bain, doing business as Bain Construction Company, against Richard Trester, Eva Marie Trester and Henry Mazel, to enforce a mechanic’s lien for clearing eighty acres of land. The two Tresters were not served. The relevant part of the bill of complaint is as follows:
“2. That your Complainant and the Respondents, Richard J. Trester and Eva Marie Trester, entered into a written agreement on towit the 20th day of February, 1959, for the clearing of lands hereinafter described, which included pushing stumps and scrub oaks, raking and leveling the said /lands and on that date your Complainant did commence the said work and labor and that he did complete the contract on the following described lands in Baldwin County, Alabama, towit: * * * That there is now due and unpaid a balance of $881.25 with interest thereon.
"3. The Complainant alleges that the above described property is the property of the Respondents, Richard J. Trester and Eva Marie Trester; that the said work or labor was done and performed on the said lands improving the same-under and by virtue of the above mentioned contract with the said Richard J. Trester and Eva Marie Trester, the owners or proprietors thereof; that within six months after the said indebtedness had matured, on towit, the 18th day of June, 1959, Complainant did file in the office of the Judge of Probate of Baldwin County, Alabama, wherein said land is situated, a verified statement as required by law, a copy of which is attached hereto and made a part hereof and marked Exhibit ‘A’; wherefore, the Complainant claims a lien for said *644amount upon said land, buildings and improvements situated thereon.
“That the above described tract of land is not in a city, town or village and that the above described lands include, but do not exceed, the area upon which the work and labor was performed by the Complainant.
“4. Complainant further avers that on January 6, 1958, the Respondents, Richard J. Trester and Eva Marie Trester, executed a mortgage on the above described lands to Henry Mazel and that the said mortgage was recorded in the office of the Judge of Probate of Baldwin County, Alabama, on April 9, 1959, in Mortgage Book 314, pages 254-6, subsequent to the entering into of the contract above described and commencement of work by your Complainant and that the lien claimed by your Complainant on the above described property and improvements thereon is superior to the lien of the mortgage given by the Respondents, Richard J. Trester and Eva Marie Trester, to Henry Mazel.”
The question for decision is whether the allegations of the bill show that complainant performed services which entitle him to the lien claimed.
We think we can safely say that if the complainant has the right to a mechanic’s lien for the services which he alleges that he performed in clearing the land described in the bill of complaint, it must be under § 37, Title 33, Code of 1940. We set out the pertinent part of § 37, Title 33, Code of 1940, as follows:
“§ 37 — Every mechanic, person, firm or corporation who shall do or perform any work, or labor upon * * * any building or improvement on land, or for repairing, altering, or beautifying the same, * * * shall have a lien therefor on such building or improvements and on the land on which the same is situated, * *
Without question the foregoing statute gives a lien for work on an improvement on land but we do not think that the statute gives a lien for work on land in the absence of an improvement or building thereon. The statute gives a lien “on such building or improvements and on the land on which the same is situated.” [Emphasis added.] If the graded land is the improvement, then there is a lien on the graded land on the land. In other words, there is a lien on land on land. We do not believe the statute warrants such a construction.
In this case it is well to remember that the right to a mechanic’s lien is purely statutory. Wilkinson et al. v. Rowe, 266 Ala. 675, 98 So.2d 435. There is no right to an equitable lien for work and labor done. Lindsey v. Rogers, 260 Ala. 231, 69 So.2d 445; Emanuel v. Underwood Coal & Supply Co., 244 Ala. 436, 14 So.2d 151.
In Tanner v. Foley Bldg. & Mfg. Co., 254 Ala. 476, 48 So.2d 785, this court said: “and since such a statutory lien is in derogation of the common law, it is to be strictly construed, all matters of substance of necessity to be complied with.”, and cases cited. Richards v. William Beach Hardware Co., 242 Ala. 535, 7 So.2d 492, and cases cited.
It is clear that the clearing, grading or leveling, which the complainant did on the land, was not done in connection with the construction of any building or other improvement on the land. Does the clearing, grading and leveling of land constitute an improvement within the meaning of § 37, Title 33, Code of 1940 and entitle one who does such work to a mechanic’s lien under the provisions of the statute? In the recent case of Wilkinson v. Rowe, supra, this court had occasion to consider whether the services rendered by a surveyor in surveying in part a subdivision was an improvement within the meaning of the statute now under consideration. In the case here referred to this court held that such services were not an improvement and that the party who rendered them was not entitled to a mechanic’s lien. This court said:
“Section 37, Title 33, Code 1940, provides that every person * * *645who shall do or perform any work, or labor upon, or furnish any material, fixture, engine, boiler, or machinery for any building or improvement on land, or for repairing, altering, or beautifying the same, * * * shall have a lien therefor on such building or improvements and on the land on which the same is situated, * * etc.
“By its language, the statute gives the lien first on the building or improvement, then on the land. Unless the improvement on which the lien can be fastened exists, the lien never attaches to the land. The statute gives a lien for work on an improvement on land, but does not give a lien for work on land in the absence of an improvement or building thereon.”
In other words before there can be a lien, there must be an improvement and the lien does not attach in the absence of an improvement or building.
In Wilkinson v. Rowe, supra, reference is made to the fact that some states have what is referred to as graders’ statutes which give a lien on realty to one who clears, grades, fills or otherwise improves real property or any street or road in front of or adjoining the same. See Daugherty v. Gunther, 88 Wash. 378, 153 P. 336. In Wilkinson v. Rowe, supra, this court further said:
“Here, we are concerned with a remedy given by statute for work done on air improvement on land. If the ‘improvement’ contemplated by the statute does not exist, the remedy given by the statute does not apply.
“ '* * * a builder’s or mechanic’s lien is purely statutory. Its character, operation and extent must be ascertained by the terms of the statute creating and defining it. Of itself, it is a peculiar, particular, special remedy given by statute, founded and circumscribed by the terms of its creation, and the courts are powerless to take it up where the statute may leave it, and extend it to meet facts and circumstances, which they may believe present a case of equal merit, or a necessity of the same kind, as the cases of necessities for which the statute provides.’ Copeland v. Kehoe & Ramsey, supra (67 Ala. 594).”
Section 37, Title 33, Code of 1940, does not entitle J. W. Bain, doing business as Bain Construction Company to a mechanic’s lien for clearing land for the reason that there are no improvements on the land to which such a lien can attach.
As fortifying our view that the word “improvement” in § 37 does not include leveling or grading of the land, we refer to § 38, Title 33, Code of 1940, which provides the method by which priority between a mechanic’s lien and a mortgage on the property may be determined. The mechanic’s lien provided for in § 37 as to the land; buildings or improvements thereon “shall have priority over all other liens, mortgages or incumbrances created subsequent to the commencement of work on the building or improvement; * * * But “as to liens, mortgages or incumbrances created prior to the commencement of the work, the lien for such work shall have priority only against the building or improvement, the product of such work which is an entirety, separable from the land, building or improvement subject to the prior lien, mortgage or incumbrance, and which can be removed therefrom without impairing the value or security of any prior lien, mortgage or incumbrance; and the person entitled to such lien may have it enforced by a sale of such buildings or improvement under the provisions of this article and the purchaser may, within a reasonable time thereafter, remove the same.”
Assuming that the mortgage on the land was made prior to the work and labor for which the mechanic’s lien was given, then the lien may be enforced by a sale of such buildings or improvement. There is no provision in the statute in this event for the sale of the land. Accordingly, if the im*646provement is the grading or leveling of the land, how can such grading and leveling be sold under section 38 without a sale of the land itself? We think this indicates that the Alabama statutes were not intended to give a lien for merely leveling or grading the land.
We quite understand that an equity court where there was a mortgage on the land in a suit to enforce a mechanic’s lien can, under certain circumstances, order a sale of the entire property, adjusting priorities in the proceeds on equitable principles. Baker Sand & Gravel Co. v. Rogers Plumbing & Heating Co., 228 Ala. 612, 154 So. 591, 102 A.L.R. 346. But the power of an equity court in this regard still does not determine the meaning of the word “improvement” in the statute.
It should be added that the demurrer raises no question of priority as between the lien claimed and the mortgage to Henry Mazel.
Of course, the legislature has the power to extend the right to a lien to cover clearing or grading land but the courts do not have the power to establish such a lien by judicial decree.
Since the views expressed by me are not in accordance with the majority opinion of the court, I respectfully dissent.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and COLEMAN, J., concur.