Meiners Co. v. Clayton Greens Nursing Center, Inc.
| Decision Date | 16 November 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 44331,44331 |
| Citation | 645 S.W.2d 722 |
| Parties | MEINERS COMPANY, a corporation, Respondent, v. CLAYTON GREENS NURSING CENTER, INC., a corporation, Appellant. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
David S. Purcell, Clayton, for appellant.
William B. Smith, III, St. Louis, for respondent.
Defendant appeals from judgment on the pleadings in favor of plaintiff in this suit on account. Defendant contends that, because an equitable mechanic's lien suit involving the same property and parties was pending in the St. Louis County Circuit Court, the trial court had no jurisdiction to hear this case and its judgment is, therefore, a nullity.
Plaintiff filed this action on October 12, 1978. The petition alleged that between the dates of April 29, 1977, and April 10, 1978, plaintiff had supplied various labor and materials to defendant and that defendant had refused to make payment. Invoices detailing the amount due, $6,785.21, were attached to the petition. The petition prayed judgment in the amount of $6,785.21 plus interest. On January 20, 1979, defendant filed its answer generally denying the allegations of the petition. On January 6, 1981, defendant filed a motion to dismiss this case for want of jurisdiction or, alternatively, to stay the case or to consolidate it with the equitable lien case. In its motion, defendant alleged that an equitable mechanic's lien action had been previously commenced against defendant, that it concerned the same property, and that plaintiff in the present suit was seeking to enforce a mechanic's lien in the equitable action. Further, the motion alleged that under §§ 429.270--.310, RSMo. 1978, and the cases construing that statute, the trial court was without jurisdiction to hear this case. The trial court overruled defendant's motion on January 9, 1981. On March 25, 1981, the case was assigned for trial, and the plaintiff filed a motion in limine to prevent defendant from referring, during the presentation of the case, to the pending equitable action or to the construction of Clayton Greens Nursing Center. In that motion plaintiff admitted that the mechanics' liens arising out of the construction of Clayton Greens Nursing Center were in litigation, but alleged the construction of the nursing center and the liens arising out of that construction were immaterial to this case. The court granted plaintiff's motion in limine. Defendant then amended its answer to admit all the allegations in the petition, and the court entered judgment on the pleadings in plaintiff's favor. Defendant preserved its objection to jurisdiction.
On appeal, defendant contends that the trial court exceeded its jurisdiction in overruling defendant's motion to dismiss, stay, or consolidate this case because there was pending an equitable mechanic's lien suit involving the parties, property, and improvements involved in this suit. Defendant argues that, by virtue of the pendency of the equitable action, the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction in this suit on account, and its judgment in this action is, therefore, a nullity. We do not agree, and we affirm the trial court's judgment on the pleadings.
Section 429.270, RSMo. 1978, provides for equitable mechanic's lien suits to determine the "various rights, interest, and liens of the various mechanics' lien claimants and claimants of other liens and owner of any interest in or leasehold upon said property ...." Section 429.300, RSMo. 1978, provides in part:
[A]ll other suits that may have been brought on any mechanic's lien claim or demand shall be stayed and no further prosecuted, and the parties in any such other suit shall be made parties to such equitable action as in the foregoing sections provided.... After the institution of such equitable action no separate suit shall be brought upon any mechanic's lien or claim against said property, or any of it, but the rights of all persons shall be adjusted, adjudicated and enforced in such equitable suit.
This language does provide that, once commenced, the equitable action is the exclusive vehicle for litigating liens and other claims related to a particular property. State ex rel. Clayton Greens Nursing Center, Inc. v. Marsh, 634 S.W.2d 462, 465 (Mo....
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...it is the exclusive method of litigating liens and other claims pertaining to particular property. Meiners Co. v. Clayton Greens Nursing Ctr., 645 S.W.2d 722, 724 (Mo. App.1982). The equitable mechanic's lien action does not, however, preclude the enforcement of the parties' arbitration agr......
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...of the records of a prior judicial proceeding had waived any objection. 49 S.W.3d at 791–92. In Meiners Co. v. Clayton Greens Nursing Center, Inc., 645 S.W.2d 722 (Mo.App. E.D.1982), the Court held that the record of a separate equitable mechanic's lien action was “an essential element of a......
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...of the records of a prior judicial proceeding had waived any objection. 49 S.W.3d at 791-92. In Meiners Co. v. Clayton Greens Nursing Center, Inc., 645 S.W.2d 722 (Mo. App. E.D. 1982), the Court held that the record of a separate equitable mechanic's lien action was "an essential element of......
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