Barr Lumber Co. v. Perkins

LANGDON, J.

This is an action to foreclose two mechanics’ liens. Defendant Lawrence C. Brubaker, on August 16, 1924, executed a written lease covering two lots, numbered 22 and 23, in the city of Los Angeles, to R. T. Colter, for a period of twenty years. The instrument gave the lessee the exclusive right to explore, mine, excavate and obtain oil, asphaltum, petroleum, natural gas and any other hydrocarbon substances contained in the premises. On or about January 27, 1925, and before any work was done, Colter assigned the lease to defendant Roy W. Perkins. On February 3, 1925, this defendant commenced to erect an oil derrick on lot number 23. On February 4, 1925, defendant Brubaker posted a notice of nonresponsibility, and filed a verified copy thereof in the office of the county recorder of Los Angeles' County. On September 10, 1925, defendant Perkins started to erect another derrick on lot number 22. On September 16, 1925, defendant Brubaker posted and filed another notice of nonresponsibility. Plain

[533]

tiff Barr Lumber Company furnished materials and plaintiff DePriest furnished labor in the construction of the derrick on said lot number 22. Being unpaid, they filed liens which were later- foreclosed. Judgment was rendered in their favor by the lower court. In support of its decision the court found that the notice of nonresponsibility given by the owner was defective.

The statute (Cal. Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1192) which permits a noneontracting owner of land to give such notice, provides in part: “Said notice shall contain a description of the property affected thereby, sufficient for identification, with the name and nature of the title, or interest of the person giving the same, name of purchaser under contract, if any, or lessees, if known. ...” The requirement that the name of the lessee be specified, if known, was added in 1925. The second notice of nonresponsibility, given subsequent to the amendment, failed to include such name. The first notice was given prior to the amendment, and was in full compliance with the statute as it then stood. This notice was general in its terms. It referred expressly to both lots and covered “any work or improvement” upon said land “or any part thereof”. In our opinion it was sufficient to absolve the owner. The second notice was unnecessary and may be disregarded. Both derricks were erected as part of the same development on a parcel of land treated as a unit by the lease. It would be utterly unreasonable to require a separate notice for each derrick or other structure placed upon the land as part of a single plant for the extraction of oil from such a parcel of land. Like a mining claim, all the land may be considered as a unit for the purpose of filing the lien.