Coulter v. Hensen

RICHARDS, J.

This action was one commenced by the plaintiff, purporting to act as the assignee of a number of labor claimants who are alleged to have performed work and labor upon certain real property owned by the defendant Hensen, which consisted in and contributed to

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the construction, alteration and repair of an oil-well upon the defendant’s property and for which the persons performing the same claimed they were entitled to laborers’ liens thereon. The property in question had been leased by Hensen and his wife to a certain voluntary association known as Motion Picture Oil Syndicate No. 1, which had theretofore been authorized by the corporation commissioner of the state of California to transact business within this state, and which association, after procuring said lease, had entered into a contract with the Hogan Drilling Company, a corporation, to drill an oil-well thereon, in the course of which the Hogan Drilling Company are alleged to have employed the laborers, some sixteen in number, who assigned their labor claims to said plaintiff. The answer of the defendant Hensen herein contains specific denials of practically all of the allegations of the plaintiff’s complaint, and in addition thereto contains certain specific defenses, among which is the defense that Hensen had within due time filed and recorded the notice of nonresponsibility provided for in section 1192 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The trial court at the close of the plaintiff’s case granted a motion for nonsuit and having done so made and entered its judgment in favor of defendant Hensen thereon. It is from such judgment that this appeal has been taken.

It is the contention of the appellant that the evidence sufficiently showed that the persons who were alleged in the complaint to be the assignors of the plaintiff performed the work and labor referred to in said complaint and upon which their respective claims of laborers’ liens under the provisions of section 1183 of the Code of Civil Procedure are based, and that the evidence also sufficiently showed that these persons are the persons who executed the assignment of their aforesaid labor claims to the plaintiff, and that the evidence also sufficiently showed that Hensen had actual knowledge of the construction of said oil-well upon his said property, and that no notice of nonresponsibility was given, posted or recorded as required by law. In response to these several contentions the respondent urges as his first contention that the assignment of the labor claims upon which the plaintiff relies for his right to sue in this action was never intro