Wharton Bros. & Co. v. Douglas & Son

• Decision Date: 24 November 1879
• Citation: 92 Pa. 66
• Parties: Wharton Bros. & Co. <I>versus</I> Douglas & Son.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 66

92 Pa. 66

Wharton Bros. & Co. versus Douglas & Son.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

November 6, 1879.

November 24, 1879.

November 6th 1879.

Before SHARSWOOD, C. J., MERCUR, GORDON, PAXSON and TRUNKEY, JJ. STERRETT and GREEN, JJ., absent

Error to the Court of Common Pleas No. 1, of Allegheny county: Of October and November Term 1879, No. 303.

Rodgers & Oliver and George P. Hamilton, for plaintiffs in error.—The claim was filed against the buildings known as the Ormsby Iron Works. It being admitted that said works were built and in operation years before the claim was filed, no lien can be maintained for their erection: Ely v. Wren, 9 Norris 148.

If the boiler-house was considered as an addition to the mill, the lien should have been filed specifically for the erection of such addition, and not for the erection of the entire mill: Pittsburgh's Appeal, 20 P. F. Smith 146; Rynd v. Bakewell, 6 Norris 460; Wetmore's Appeal, 10 Id. 276.

If the boiler-house was a permanent and substantial building, sufficient of itself to support a lien, the claim should have been filed against it: Parrish's Appeal, 2 Norris 111; Summerville v. Wann, 1 Wright 182, Miller v. Hershey, 9 P. F. Smith 64; Diller v. Berger, 18 Id. 432.

Fetterman & Johnston, for defendants in error.—In filing a lien if it is alleged that the materials were furnished or the work done in and about the erection or construction of the buildings generally, it is not such a misdescription as to avoid the lien. For upon the proof of the facts, the lien would attach to the addition, and it would draw the lien to the whole property as if it had originally been filed against the addition alone: Harman v. Cummings and Wife, 7 Wright 322.

Mr. Justice GORDON delivered the opinion of the court, November 24th 1879.

W. Douglas & Son, the plaintiffs below, filed their mechanics' lien "against all that certain frame one-story iron mill or building situate in the ______ ward of the city of Pittsburgh, in the county aforesaid, and described as follows: Being situated on the northwest corner of Wharton and Twenty-fifth street, in the ______ ward of the city of Pittsburgh. Having a front on Twenty-fifth street of about one hundred and fifty feet, and a depth along Wharton street of about two hundred feet, with a one-story frame back building between said main building and Water street, about forty by sixty feet in size. Said buildings being known as the "Ormsby Iron Works," and being erected upon a lot...