Trask v. Searle

• Decision Date: 04 November 1876
• Citation: 121 Mass. 229
• Parties: H. C. Trask v. R. C. Searle
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

121 Mass. 229

H. C. Trask v. R. C. Searle

Supreme Court of Massachusetts

November 4, 1876

Hampden. Petition, under the Gen. Sts. c. 150, to enforce a mechanic's lien for labor performed and furnished "upon and about the building recently erected, altered and repaired," owned by the respondent, and situated on a certain street in Springfield. Annexed to the petition was an account containing two items: the first, "for moving and placing the house, $ 250;" and the second, "for raising the house, $ 25." The case was submitted to the Superior Court, and, after judgment for the petitioner, to this court, on appeal, on an agreed statement of facts in substance as follows:

At the time the work was done, the respondent owned the lot of land described in the petition, and also the wooden dwelling-house which stood thereon, and which had been erected there about ten years before, and was at that time in complete repair. To render the land more available for building purposes, he decided to lay out a street near the centre of the lot, and divide the whole tract into house lots, and contracted with the petitioner to remove the house, except a small ell, from its original location to another spot, over a newly excavated cellar. The petitioner did the work according to the contract, leaving the house on blocking or screws until the cellar wall was put in, and then, at the request of the respondent, raised it a few inches to receive the underpinning. The house was afterward put in condition for occupation in its new position, although it required no refitting other than what was necessary to adapt it to its new position, and to repair certain cracks in plastering occasioned by the removal and the open space where the ell part was cut off.

If the performance of the labor above described would entitle the petitioner to a lien under the provisions of the Gen. Sts. c 150, his lien was to be established for the amount of his bill and interest thereon; otherwise, the petition to be dismissed.

Judgment entered for the respondent.

M. P Knowlton, for the petitioner.

W. S. Greene, for the respondent.

G. Wells, for the present owner, was also heard.

Lord J. Colt & Morton, JJ., absent.

OPINION

Lord, J.

The principal question in this case is, does the statute, which authorizes a lien upon real estate, give a lien for labor performed in removing a building from one place to another. Mechanics' liens for labor upon buildings are wholly the creation of the statutes upon the subject, There was no lien at common law for such labor. The lien is an incumbrance upon the estate, and is usually, for a time at least, a secret incumbrance. Although, when a lien attaches, the provisions of law upon the subject being remedial, a liberal construction will be put upon the statute for the purpose of accomplishing its objects, yet this applies only to liens which have attached. Upon the question, whether a lien attaches, a different rule of construction obtains. Liens are in derogation of the common law; they may create an interest in land by parol, and that interest may be a secret interest. The court is not authorized to extend the law beyond the causes specifically provided for. It cannot say that the statute by implication includes labor not within its terms. It cannot say that the labor performed is...