Warburton v. Coumbe
| Decision Date | 16 July 1894 |
| Citation | 34 Fla. 212,15 So. 769 |
| Parties | WARBURTON v. COUMBE. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Error to circuit court, Polk county; G. A. Hanson, Judge.
Walter R. Coumbe sues Piers E. Warburton to enforce a laborer's lien. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant brings error. Reversed.
Syllabus by the Court
1. Section 10, c. 3747, Laws 1887, approved June 3, 1887, giving to the bookkeepers, clerks, etc., of merchants transportation companies, and other corporations a lien upon the stock, fixtures, and other property of such merchants transportation companies, etc., to the extent of the value of any labor performed in the conduct of their business, does not give such lien to the bookkeeper of a person engaged in the sawmill business, upon the mill and other property of his employer.
2. Said chapter 3747, Laws 1887, approved June 3, 1887, did not become operative or effective as law until the expiration of 60 days after the final adjournment of the legislature that enacted it, or until August, 1887. No lien could be acquired under it for any labor performed prior to the time it became operative as law.
3. Under section 17 of said chapter 3747, Laws 1887, the liens provided for therein spring into existence at the time any labor is done or material is furnished for which a lien is given, and such liens live only for six months from the last day upon which such labor was done or material furnished. If no proceeding is instituted within that time to enforce such liens, they lapse and expire.
COUNSEL Foster & Gunby, for plaintiff in error.
Tucker & Clark, for defendant in error.
Walter R. Coumbe, the defendant in error, sued Warburton, the plaintiff in error, in the circuit court of Polk county, by the summary statutory proceeding, in attachment to enforce an alleged laborer's lien upon certain lots of land in Polk county, and a steam sawmill and machinery located thereon. The amount of the claim sued for was $608.79. The lien is claimed and sought to be enforced under the provisions of chapter 3747, Laws 1887, approved June 3, 1887. The labor performed for which the lien is claimed was chiefly that of bookkeeper for the defendant in his sawmill business, and in other business enterprises in which the defendant was engaged. A notice of the lien was filed in the circuit court clerk's office on February 21, 1888, and the summary suit by attachment to enforce it was instituted on the same day.
The items of the account for which the lien is claimed are as follows:
| 1885, Jany. 9th.Part of traveling expense N.Y. to Acton | $ 10 00 |
| Salary 25th Jany., 1885, to 30th April, 1886, 3 1/4 months. at $40 per month | 130 00 |
| Salary 1st May, 1885, to 18th February, 1888, 33 months, 18 days, at $60 per month | 2,016 00 |
| Extra salary while drumming, from February, 1886, to end of April, 1887, say 12 months, at $15 per month. | 180 00 |
| --------- | |
| $2,336 00 | |
| Cr. by payments | 1,727 21 |
| --------- | |
| Balance sued for | $608 79 |
The cause was submitted to a jury, who returned a verdict for $600, upon which the court entered judgment against the defendant for $600, besides the costs, and the further sum of $100 as an attorney's fee for the enforcement of the lien. To this judgment the defendant, Warburton, has sued out a writ of error.
Various errors are assigned, but we shall notice but one of them, as that will dispose of the whole case. The defendant moved for a new trial upon the ground that the verdict was contrary to the evidence and contrary to law. To sustain his alleged lien the plaintiff testified that Warburton represented various large business interests, such as Key West Gaslight Company, agent for Hanbury lands, also general land agent. He says further that the sawmill closed down in June, A. D. 1887, and did not run again up to the time he quit the employment of Warburton. From the time the mill shut down to the time he quit the defendant's employment, he says that he drummed...
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