Vane v. Newcombe
Decision Date | 25 November 1889 |
Parties | VANE v. NEWCOMBE et al. 1 |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
On the filing of a bill in equity in October, 1884, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Indiana, by the Bankers' & Merchants' Telegraph Company of Indiana, an Indiana corporation, against the Bankers' & Merchants' Telegraph Company of New York, a New York corporation, praying for an accounting between the defendant and the plaintiff as to moneys due by the former to the latter, and for a determination of the relative rights of the parties to certain telegraph lines and property in Indiana, and for the appointment of receivers pendente lite, to take possession of the lines and property, an order was made by the court appointing Richard S. Newcombe and James G. Smith receivers of all the lines and property of the plaintiff and the defendant, or either of them, situated within the jurisdiction of the court.2 The same persons had been appointed receivers of the defendant in a suit brought by one Day in the supreme court of the state of New York. In March, 1885, James E. Vane filed in the suit in the circuit court an intervening petition. It set forth that in June 1884, the defendant had employed Vane to put six additional wires on and along the telegraph poles then owned by the defendant, from Freeport, Ohio, to Hammond, Ind., and to attach such wires to the proper fixtures and appendages to the poles, so that the company might have six additional, independent wires between those places, and agreed with Vane to pay him, as compensation for the work, $45 for every mile of wire put and strung upon the poles, the defendant agreeing to furnish all of the wire and other necessary material, which were to be delivered at the nearest distributive point along the route of the line, and to pay all freight for their shipment to the various points along the route, and to deliver them to Vane free of any charge at such points. The petition further alleged that in June, 1884, the defendant directed Vane to construct two lines westwardly from Hammond in the direction of Chicago, Ill. That he proceeded to erect and construct such two lines to a point about 10 miles east of the court-house in Chicago. That the defendant had failed to pay the freights on the wire and materials. That Vane, at its request, had furnished money to pay such freights, and also money to purchase necessary materials used in making the line. That the defendant had committed other breaches of its agreement with Vane, and in consequence owed him a large sum of money. That he had executed the work in all things as directed by the defendant. That when he had completed the six lines to Lake Station, in Lake county, Ind., the defendant owed him about $16,000. That he then disconnected the six wires from their westerly connections, and held physical possession of them, for his own protection. That, while he so held them in their disconnected condition, the receivers, Newcombe and Smith, entered into the following agreement with him, in consideration that he would allow the lines to be connected with other lines running westerly into Chicago:
That in September, 1884, he caused notice to be given to the defendant of his intention to hold a lien upon its corporate property and earnings, for all work and labor done and performed and all moneys advanced by him to and for its benefit, at its instance and request, and for that purpose filed notices, on the 18th and 19th of September, 1884, in the offices of the recorders of seven counties in Indiana through which the telegraph line runs, the notices being dated September 15, 1884. That the receivers also owed him $1,898.33 for work which he did for them after their appointment, in connecting said wires at Lake Station and Hammond with their westward connections, under which employment he erected and completed the wires to a distance of about four miles from the court-house in Chicago, such indebtedness including also the purchase by him of a large amount of materials and the payment of freight-bills, and the doing of other work; and that the receivers also owed him other moneys, which he had paid for the wages and expenses of men who performed work for the receivers in respect of the telegraph line between December, 1884, and February, 1885. The petition prayed for the payment of the claim of Vane out of the first moneys coming into the hands of the receivers, as a superior lien to all claims except those of a like class.
The lien covered by the notices purported to be claimed under the act of the legislature of Indiana approved March 13, 1877. Laws Ind. 1877, (Sp. Sess.) c. 8, p. 27; also, Rev. St. Ind. 1881, §§ 5286-5291.
Sections 1 and 2 of the Act of 1877, being sections 5286 and 5287 of the Revised Statutes, provide as follows: The notices of lien filed by Vane were all in the following form, the name of the county being different in each case:
The receivers put in an answer to the petition, setting up that as to so much of it as sought to enforce a lien upon the telegraph property and its rents and incomes Vane did not occupy, in his transactions with the defendant, the relation of an employe, but of a general contractor, and was not entitled to claim or enforce a lien; that he was not entitled to a first lien, because, before he filed his petition, the receivers had executed, under an order of the supreme court of New York and under the direction of the circuit court, receivers' certificates to the amount of $130,000, to be used in the payment of the debts of the defendant, and $20,000, to be used to complete the construction of its telegraph lines, which certificates were...
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