Seaman v. Climate Control Corp.

• Decision Date: 29 July 1980
• Citation: 436 A.2d 271,181 Conn. 592
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: , 24 A.L.R.4th 951 Elmer SEAMAN v. CLIMATE CONTROL CORPORATION. Elmer SEAMAN v. BRANFORD N. O. NELSON COMPANY.

Page 271

436 A.2d 271

181 Conn. 592, 24 A.L.R.4th 951

Elmer SEAMAN v. CLIMATE CONTROL CORPORATION.

Elmer SEAMAN v. BRANFORD N. O. NELSON COMPANY.

Supreme Court of Connecticut.

Argued May 8, 1980.

Decided July 29, 1980.

Jerome D. Elbaum, Hartford, with whom was Martha J. Friar, West Hartford, for appellant (plaintiff in each case).

Charles A. Sherwood, New Haven, for appellees (defendant in each case).

William J. Egan and Clifford J. Grandjean, New Haven, filed a brief as amici curiae.

Robert F. McWeeney and Karl Fleischmann, Hartford, filed a brief as amici curiae.

Before COTTER, C. J., and BOGDANSKI, PETERS, HEALEY and PARSKEY, JJ.

PETERS, Associate Justice.

The sole issue on this appeal is whether a second tier subcontractor has a right to a mechanic's lien against the owner's property when the owner owes money to the general contractor, but the first tier subcontractor has been fully paid by the general contractor. The plaintiff, Elmer Seaman (hereinafter Seaman), brought an application in Superior Court, pursuant to General Statutes § 49-35a, to discharge two mechanic's liens filed by the defendants Climate Control Corporation (hereinafter Climate Control) and Branford N. O. Nelson Co., d/b/a Branford Plumbing and Heating Supply Co. (hereinafter Branford) on certain real property owned by Seaman in Norwalk. The trial court, Berdon, J., rendered judgment for the defendants and the plaintiff has appealed.

The trial court's findings of fact are largely derived from a stipulation of the parties. ¹ The findings establish the following: The plaintiff, Seaman, as owner, contracted with Seaman Construction Co., Inc., as general contractor, to construct apartment housing for the elderly on the Seaman property. Seaman is president of Seaman Construction Co. The general contractor thereafter entered into a subcontract with Miami Plumbing and Heating Contractors, Inc. (hereinafter Miami) for the installation of plumbing and related equipment at a contract price of $140,000. In performance of its subcontract, Miami purchased supplies and materials from Branford and services from Climate Control. Branford and Climate Control dealt solely with Miami, a first tier subcontractor. The defendants had no contractual relationship with either Seaman or Seaman Construction Co. nor was their performance in any way directed by Seaman or Seaman Construction Co. Neither Seaman nor Seaman Construction Co. ever had any control or charge over Miami's purchasing of supplies, materials and services from the defendants.

When Branford and Climate Control notified Seaman of their intentions to file mechanic's liens pursuant to General Statutes § 49-33; ² see General Statutes §§ 49-34 and 49-35; Seaman Construction Co. had substantially paid Miami the full subcontract price of $140,000. ³ At that time the owner still owed the general contractor $89,157 pursuant to their contract. The money expended to complete the work left unfinished when Miami voluntarily abandoned its subcontract was $8005.91.

Having met the requirements of notice to the owner under General Statutes §§ 49-34 and 49-35, Branford filed a mechanic's lien in the amount of $40,697.66 for the balance due for materials furnished for the construction project under its contract with Miami. Climate Control filed its lien in the amount $7702 for services rendered in connection with the same project under its contract with Miami. The parties have stipulated, and the trial court found, that the amount owed Climate Control is $6526. The total amount claimed pursuant to the Branford and the Climate Control liens is thus substantially less than the amount remaining due from the owner, Seaman, to the general contractor, Seaman Construction Co.

Before we reach the specific question on this appeal, it is well to put into context the relationships between owners, contractors and subcontractors under our mechanic's lien law. Those who provide services or materials in connection with the construction of a building are entitled to claim a lien on the land that they have improved if they fall into one of two categories. Lienors are protected if they have a claim either (1) by virtue of an agreement with or the consent of the owner of the land, or (2) by the consent of some person having authority from or rightfully acting for such owner in procuring labor or materials. General Statutes § 49-33. ⁴ Lienors in the second category must give timely notice of their intent to claim a lien in order to perfect their lien, while those in the first category need not give such notice. General Statutes § 49-35. Lienors in the second category include subcontractors and persons who furnish materials or services by virtue of a contract with the original contractor or with any subcontractor, that is to say at least first and second tier subcontractors. General Statutes § 49-35. No mechanic's lien may exceed the price which the owner has agreed to pay for the building being erected or improved, and the owner is entitled, furthermore, to credit for payments made in good faith to the original contractor before receipt of notice of such a lien or liens. General Statutes §§ 49-33 and 49-36. If the contract price which the owner agreed to pay the original contractor is insufficient to cover all the liens, claimants other than the original contractor are to be paid first, and, if necessary, on a pro rata basis. General Statutes § 49-36.

These general observations help to clarify what is not at issue in this case. The subcontractors, even though they are second tier rather than first tier subcontractors, are prima facie within the ambit of the mechanic's lien law. It is not necessary to their lien status that they have any direct contractual relationship either with the owner or with the general contractor (denominated the original contractor in the statutes). They have concededly given timely notice to the owner, in proper form, of their liens. There is an identifiable fund which appropriate claims for mechanic's liens may reach, since the owner has retained an unpaid balance due under his contract with the general contractor that exceeds in amount the totality of the mechanic's lien claims.

The sole question on this appeal, as in the trial court, is whether the defendants, second tier subcontractors, are to be denied their liens because the first tier subcontractor with whom they contracted has been paid in full by the general contractor. The trial court held that, in light of the statute governing mechanic's liens, this fact should not bar their recovery, and we agree.

The parties are agreed that resolution of the rights of the plaintiff depends primarily upon the meaning of General Statutes § 49-33. In interpreting this section, the complexity of which should not be underestimated; see Stone v. Moomjian, 92 Conn. 476, 484, 103 A. 635 (1918); we are guided by well-settled principles of construction. Although the mechanic's lien law creates a statutory lien in derogation of the common law, its remedial purpose to furnish security for a contractor's labor and materials requires a generous construction. Camputaro v. Stuart Hardwood Corporation, 180 Conn. 545, 550, 429 A.2d 796 (1980); Stone v. Rosenfield, 141 Conn. 188, 191, 104 A.2d 545 (1954); City Lumber Co. v. Borsuk, 131 Conn. 640, 645, 41 A.2d 775 (1945). Even bearing in mind the statute's beneficent purpose, we are, however, constrained by the language of the statute as we find it, and cannot rewrite the statute or adopt the reasoning of precedents in other jurisdictions with different statutes. Camputaro v. Stuart Hardwood Corporation, supra; New Haven Orphan Asylum v. Haggerty Co., 108 Conn. 232, 236, 142 A. 847 (1928); Hartford Builders Finish Co. v. Anderson, 99 Conn. 343, 345, 122 A. 76 (1923).

Two sentences in § 49-33 ⁵ are central to the arguments of the parties. "No mechanic's lien shall attach to any ... building ... in favor of any subcontractor to a greater extent in the whole than the amount which the owner has agreed to pay to any person through whom such subcontractor claims .... Any such subcontractor shall be subrogated to the rights of the person through whom such subcontractor claims ...." The plaintiff urges that the second sentence subrogates the second tier subcontractor to the rights of the first tier subcontractor while the defendants claim to be subrogated to the rights of the general contractor. These disparate interpretations are crucial to this appeal, since the first tier subcontractor, having been fully paid, has no right to which anyone could be subrogated, while the general contractor, as yet partially unpaid, remains a suitable candidate for subrogation. The parties are at odds both about the significance of the exact wording of § 49-33 and about its relationship to our existing case law.

This court has had only one occasion to rule upon the rights of a second tier subcontractor after full payment to the first tier subcontractor. In Barlow Brothers Co. v. Gaffney, 76 Conn. 107, 55 A. 582 (1903), we sustained the claimant's mechanic's lien. ⁶ "The plaintiff's right to a lien is given solely by statute, and is not made to depend in any way upon the act of the original contractor in paying or not paying his immediate subcontractor. The legislative conditions upon which the plaintiff's right to a lien is made to depend do not include such an act, and if the court should make such an act one of these conditions, that would be an act of judicial legislation rather than one of construction and interpretation. If the original contractor is, under the present law, unprotected, in that he may be compelled to pay twice for the same work and materials, the fault is not with the plaintiff, and the remedy must be sought in the Legislature and not in the courts." Id., 112, 55 A. 584.

The plaintiff mounts a two-fold attack on Barlow Brothers. One prong of this attack relies on the language in cases decided both...