U.S. v. Colotta
| Citation | 86 So.2d 19,224 Miss. 33 |
| Decision Date | 19 March 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 39593,39593 |
| Parties | , 56-1 USTC P 9383 UNITED STATES of America v. I. J. COLOTTA et al. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi |
H. Brian Holland, U. S. Asst. Dist. Atty., Washington, D. C., for appellant.
Neill, Clark & Townsend, Stanney Sanders, Cooper & Harper, Indianola, for appellee.
On April 18, 1955, we entered a judgment affirming the final decree of the Chancery Court of Sunflower County in the above styled cause, for the reasons stated in the opinion reported in Miss., 79 So.2d 474. There was involved the question of the priority of certain mechanics' liens under Section 356 et seq., Miss.Code of 1942. We held that the mechanics' liens had priority over the Federal tax lien arising from a back assessment of income taxes, since our statute itself created the lien and it was prior both in time and in right over the back assessment for income taxes due the Federal Government.
The United States of America filed its petition for a writ of certiorari in the Supreme Court of the United States. That Court reversed our decision without an opinion, that is to say without assigning any reason therefor. The question presented by the petition for certiorari was: Whether a lien of the United States for unpaid federal taxes, arising under Sections 3670 and 3671 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939, 26 U.S.C.A., is superior to a statutory mechanic's lien accorded by state law to contractors, laborers and materialmen, where the contract giving rise to the mechanic's lien had been performed but no steps had been taken to file or enforce such lien before the federal lien arose and was recorded.
Our interpretation of our own state statute, as to when a mechanic's or materialmen's lien arises, appears to have been given no weight by the Supreme Court of the United States, nevertheless we have no alternative than to sustain the motion to reverse and remand the decree of the Chancery Court of Sunflower County, Mississippi.
The motion to reverse and remand the cause on the mandate of the Supreme Court of the United States is accordingly sustained.
All Justices concur except LEE, HALL and HOLMES, JJ., who dissent.
This cause recurs here on a motion to remand.
In the original decision of the case, three liens were involved: (1) A deed of trust, dated May 7, 1952, to W. A. Hall and another for $15,000 to pay for labor and materials; (2) liens of Frank M. Rinehart in the sum of $4,144.02 under a written contract, dated May 3, 1952, for labor and materials for the construction of a building, and L. A. Chambless and F. R. Long under a written contract, dated June 4, 1952, in the sum of $825.86 for mechanical work in installing a heating system in the building; and (3) a lien of the United States in the sum of $46,729.23 for unpaid income taxes and penalties, filed in the office of the chancery clerk on December 8, 1952.
The construction work of Rinehart, Chambless and Long was completed on November 3, 1952, at which time the above balances on their contracts became due and payable. Thereafter, on March 26, 1953, they filed their suit to recover and to have the property sold under their liens.
The chancery court, after a hearing, entered a decree which ordered the sale of the property and the payment of the liens in the order in which they are listed above. On appeal, this Court affirmed the decree of the trial court. 79 So.2d 474. The opinion dealt fully with the provisions of Section 356, Code of 1942, which created a lien on the building and curtilage thereof to secure the payment of labor done and materials furnished in its construction, and to Section 360, Code of 1942, which provided the method of enforcement. This lien is not new in this State. After admission into the Union on December 10, 1817, the State Legislature thereafter on February 5, 1819, passed the first law on this subject; and by February 22, 1940, the statutes had been so co- ordinated that they were substantially the same as the present laws. These statutes have been in effect through the intervening years. See Articles 4, 5, 6 and 7, Chapter 45, Hutchinson's Code 1798 to 1848; Articles 1-14, Chapter 39, Code of 1857; Articles 1 and 11, Sections 1603 et seq., Code of 1871; Chapter 53, Sections 1378 et seq., Code of 1880; Sections 2698 et seq., Code of 1892; Sections 3058 et seq., Code of 1906; Sections 2258 et seq., Code of 1930; Sections 356 et seq., Code of 1942. In the earlier days, the period within which the suit had to be brought was six months; and as was pointed out in the original opinion, this Court in Dinkins v. Bowers, 49 Miss. 219, in 1873 held that: 'The statute preserves the lien for six months after the mechanic's debt becomes due and gives that time for suit to enforce it.' Over fifty years ago, the time was increased from six to twelve months. Hence it may now be said that the statute preserves the lien for twelve months after the mechanic's and materialman's debt becomes due and gives that time for suit to enforce.
Thus, for more than a century, the State of Mississippi, by its statutes, has given assurance to those who perform labor and furnish materials in the construction of a building that they have a lien on the building and curtilage thereof to enforce payment for their labor and materials. The owner of a building, from such statutes, likewise knows that, if he fails to pay for the labor and materials necessary to construct his building, such building can be sold to enforce payment.
The building in question was not completed until November 3, 1952. The debt, which was owing the lienees on account of labor and materials, did not become due until the building had been completed; and of course, they could not begin their suit until after that time. But, if the period of twelve months in which to enforce the lien is to be brushed aside, and if the United States, in the interim between the completion of the building and the acquisition of a judgment by the lienees, can obtain priority on its lien, then, even though suit had been filed on November 4, 1952, the day after completion of the building, such suit would have been without avail, because it would have been impossible, under our trial procedure and schedule of court terms, to have obtained judgments and had them enrolled prior to December 8, 1952, the date on which the Director of Internal Revenue filed the lien of the United States for income taxes in the Office of the Chancery Clerk of Sunflower County.
If such a course is open to the United States in collecting debts from its citizens, then it is privileged to reach in ahead of breadwinners and materialmen, take from them their wages and competence with which they feed and clothe...
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