California National Supply Co. v. Porter

CRAIG, Acting P. J.

The appellant instituted a suit against the respondent Porter as the owner of certain real property in Orange County, and the respondent corporation as lessee, praying foreclosure of a mechanic’s lien filed by appellant and evidencing an alleged indebtedness for materials furnished the respondent Richfield Union Oil Company for the construction of a certain building, derrick, outbuildings, and appurtenances and the drilling of an oil well upon the premises. The case was tried before the superior court and a judgment was rendered in favor of the respondents, from which the plaintiff appeals.

[760]

It appears from the pleadings that on the sixth and seventh days of April, 1921, appellant furnished and delivered materials of an alleged value of $2,500.22, for which it filed a mechanic’s lien dated October 17, 1921, and that on January 13, 1922, this action was commenced for the foreclosure of the lien, and appellant alleged in its complaint that no part of the price of the materials had been paid.

Upon the trial respondents introduced evidence tending to show that the other defendants named in the complaint had no interest in the subject matter of the action, which the trial court found to be a fact. There was also introduced a promissory note for the same amount, signed by the respondent corporation, together with a letter addressed to appellant, dated July 1, 1921, purporting to inclose “our company’s note in the sum of $2500.22, dated June 15th, 1921, and due August 1st, 1921, with interest from date until paid at the rate of 7 per cent per annum, and which note we are sending you in settlement of the account which you hold against our company.” Respondents further introduced a letter from the appellant supply company, dated July 2, 1921, reading, in part, as follows: “We beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of July first, enclosing note for $2500.22 in payment of your account with The California National Supply Company.” It was also shown, and it is not denied, that appellant subsequently to the dates last mentioned had filed in the superior court of Orange County a suit upon said note, and had recovered judgment thereon, which judgment was introduced in evidence, and it was stipulated that the sums of money specified in the note upon which the suit was founded, and in the mechanic’s lien which appellant was seeking to foreclose, represented the agreed price of the same materials.