Morse v. Morrison

• Decision Date: 09 September 1901
• Citation: 66 P. 169,16 Colo.App. 449
• Parties: MORSE et al. v. MORRISON.
• Court: Colorado Court of Appeals

66 P. 169

16 Colo.App. 449

MORSE et al. v. MORRISON.

Court of Appeals of Colorado

September 9, 1901

Appeal from district court, Arapahoe county.

Replevin by W.F. Morrison against R.M. Morse and others. From a judgment in favor of plaintiff, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Thomas H. Hardcastle, for appellants.

Henry Howard, Jr., for appellee.

THOMSON J.

Replevin by appellee against appellants to recover the possession of certain specific articles of personal property, kept in an office in a building belonging to the appellants. The court, on a trial without a jury, gave the plaintiff judgment, and the defendants appealed.

The evidence disclosed the following facts: On the 26th day of June, 1897, M.L. Chapman occupied an office in the building in Denver known as the "Boston Building," and the property in question consisted of furniture belonging to him and used by him in his office. On that day, Chapman, being indebted to the plaintiff, executed to the latter his note for the amount due, and secured its payment by a chattel mortgage of the property in suit. The note, by its terms matured on July 6, 1897, but the plaintiff left the property in the hands of the mortgagor, and made no attempt to recover it, until the commencement of this action, on the 14th day of July, 1898. On the 1st day of December, 1897, Chapman was indebted to the defendants in the sum of $250 for rent of the office for 10 months. About the 4th of that month, their agent asked him to secure the debt by bill of sale on the property, but he refused, saying that he had mortgaged it to the plaintiff. On the next day the agent took possession of the property, and placed it in another room of the same building. The mortgage to the plaintiff was never recorded.

Two questions are presented to us for decision, which are thus stated by counsel for the appellants: "First. Were the appellants entitled to a lien upon the tenant's furniture in an office room used for business purposes for rent overdue and unpaid? Second. Can the title of appellee under a chattel mortgage overdue and unrecorded, and not proved to have been noted in the record of the notary public taking the acknowledgment of the same, be held good and valid against an existing creditor with a claim for rent overdue and unpaid?"

1. The following is the statutory provision in relation to liens upon furniture for rent of rooms: "The keeper of any hotel, tavern or boarding house, or any person who rents furnished or unfurnished rooms, shall have a lien upon the baggage and furniture of his or her patrons, boarders, guests or tenants, for such boarding lodging or rent, and for all costs incurred in enforcing such lien." Mills' Ann.St. § 254. The contention is that the terms "furnished and unfurnished rooms" include all classes of rooms, for whatever purpose they may be rented. The all-embracing construction for which counsel contends would bring not only rooms used for lodging, but offices, storerooms, and even factories, within the purview of the statute. The lien upon furniture is given to the keeper of a hotel, tavern, or boarding house, and any person who rents furnished or unfurnished rooms. There is a well-established rule of construction that where words of general import follow specific designations, the application of the former is controlled by the latter. City of St. Louis v. Laughlin, 49 Mo. 559; City of Lynchburg v. Norfolk & W.R Co., 80 Va. 237, 56 Am.Rep. 592; Narramore v. Clark, 63 N.H 166; Sandiman v. Breach, 7 Barn. & C. 96; Bouv.Law Dict. tit. "Ejusdem Generis." The keeper of a hotel has the remedy of a lien against the guests stopping with him, and a boarding-house keeper against the boarders rooming in his house. Thus, in those cases, the particular classes of persons who are entitled to the lien are those who furnish lodging to their guests or patrons; and, in accordance with the rule, the general words, "any person who rents furnished or unfurnished rooms," must be...