Holt Manufacturing Co. v. Collins

This is an appeal by plaintiff from a judgment and an order denying its motion for a new trial in an action brought by it against defendant Collins, sheriff of Tulare County, to recover possession of certain threshing machinery, consisting of a steam-engine, etc., or its value.

The complaint was in the form generally used in actions of claim and delivery, alleging ownership and right of possession in the plaintiff, value, possession by said defendant, demand for delivery and refusal to comply therewith.

The defendant sheriff by his answer denied the alleged ownership and right of possession of plaintiff, and set up in justification of his claim to the possession a certain judgment in the superior court of Tulare County in an action brought by C. J. Edwards and four others against J. E. Hubbard, Chauneey Hubbard, Owen Hubbard, Archy Hubbard, and this plaintiff, to enforce against said threshing machinery alleged liens for work and labor in and about the same, under section 3061 of the Civil Code, and an order of sale in satisfaction of said judgment issued thereon and placed in his hands for execution.

The judgment so set up was against the Hubbards only, and showed upon its face that the action was dismissed as to the Holt Manufacturing Company prior to judgment on motion of the attorney for the plaintiffs therein, and that judgment was given against the Hubbards upon their default, they having failed to appear in the action. Plaintiff, it appears, consented to such dismissal. The judgment contained recitals showing substantially that it was made to appear to the court that the Hubbards were the owners and in possession of, managing, and operating the machinery as farmers, harvesters, and threshers, and that the plaintiffs had each worked and performed labor thereon in operating the same at the request

The plaintiffs in said action, C. J. Edwards et al., filed in this action their complaint in intervention, setting up therein their claims to a lien on said property solely by reason of said judgment, there being no allegations therein tending to support any claim except as it was established by said judgment. They further alleged that plaintiff herein delivered the property to the Hubbards, knowing the purposes for which it was to be operated and knew that it was so being operated. They joined with defendant sheriff in asking that the property be delivered to the sheriff to be sold to satisfy the judgment.

Plaintiff's demurrer to this complaint in intervention for want of facts was overruled. Plaintiff then filed an answer to such complaint, and among other things denied the alleged effect of the judgment as against it, alleged that the judgment as to one of said creditors, Martha M. Pauley, had been fully paid and satisfied, and denied that the lien of the interveners amounted to fifteen hundred dollars or any sum whatever. In this answer it was also made to appear that, although plaintiff was originally made a party defendant in the foreclosure case, and filed an answer denying all the material allegations of the complaint, it was not a party to the judgment, plaintiff having dismissed the action as to it.

The interveners demurred to this answer for want of facts, and the demurrer was sustained.

A trial having been had, the court made its findings. From these it appears that the property was delivered by plaintiff to J. E. Hubbard on or about June 7, 1905, under a contract of conditional sale for eight thousand five hundred dollars, payable in installments. It was agreed therein that plaintiff does not part with the title until all deferred payments are fully made, and that in the event of default in payment the plaintiff might, at its option, and without notice, terminate the agreement and retake the property. Under this agreement, the Hubbards retained possession of the property, operating it until it was taken from them by the sheriff under the order

It is manifest from the record that the proceedings in the trial court were had and disposed of on the theory apparently entertained both by counsel for respondent and the learned judge of that court, that the rights of the plaintiff in this property were foreclosed, so far as the claims of the interveners and the sheriff holding the property for the enforcement of those claims were concerned, by the judgment in the foreclosure proceeding. This undoubtedly would have been the situation in view of our decisions as to the effect of our statute relating to liens of laborers on threshing machines (now section 3061 of the Civil Code) had plaintiff been a party to that judgment. It is there provided that “every person performing work or labor in, with, about, or upon any barley crusher, threshing machine or engine, horsepower, wagon, or other appliance thereof, while engaged in crushing or threshing, has a lien thereon to the extent of the value of his services,” which lien, it is provided, is to be enforced by an action brought for that purpose, resulting in the sale of the property. There is no provision as to who shall be parties in such

But he thus subjects it only to such claims as constitute liens under the terms of the statute, and, under elementary principles, is entitled to his day in court to contest the validity of any asserted claim. His interest in the property cannot be affected by a proceeding for such enforcement to which he is not a party.

Passing the possible constitutional objection that might be made to a statute that purported to authorize the taking of the property of a person for the debt of another alleged to constitute a lien on such property, without an opportunity to the owner to contest the validity of the claim and lien, it is clear that nothing of this kind was ever contemplated by the statute before us. What it did contemplate was simply, as has already been held, that the laborer should have his lien on the property as against the owner, for services rendered under employment by another lawfully in possession thereof, and that he might enforce this lien against the owner. When so proceeded against by the lien claimant, the fact that one is the owner of the property does not enable him to-

As was said in Tay v. Hawley, 39 Cal. 96 : “It is a cardinal principle of jurisprudence that a judgment shall not bind or conclude a man, either in respect to his person or property, unless he has had his day in-court. No person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, says the constitution; but this principle is older than written constitutions, and, without invoking the constitutional declaration, every person may, as a matter of common right, insist that he be heard in his own defense before judgment passes, which binds, charges, or injuriously affects his person or his estate.” Under our statute a judgment foreclosing a lien can be conclusive only “between the parties and their successors in interest by title subsequent to the commencement of the action.” (Code Civ. Proe., sec. 1908, subd. 2.)

The owner of the property in a case of this character occupies a position analagous to that of a subsequent purchaser or encumbrancer who takes prior to the commencement of an action to foreclose a prior lien. His interest is subject to the prior claim, but can only be affected by a judgment thereon to which he is made a party. In Whitney v. Higgins, 10 Cal. 551 , [ 70 Am. Dec. 748 ], this court said: “The plaintiff’s claim to the relief he seeks rests upon the general principle that the rights of a person cannot be affected by a suit to which he is a stranger. By the judgment in a suit, parties and privies are alone bound. . . . Though the lien of mechanics is purely the creature of the statute, a decree for the sale of the premises in its enforcement has the same and no greater effect upon the rights of purchasers and encumbrancers prior to the commencement of suit, than a similar decree would have upon the foreclosure of a mortgage. If such purchasers or encumbrancers are not made parties, they are in no respect.

In Page v. W. W. Chase Co., 145 Cal. 582 , [ 79 Pac. 278 ], it was held that an action for the foreclosure of a lien of a street assessment is not a proceeding in rem, except in the sense that the amount thereof can be collected only out of the property involved in the action, and is not a proceeding wherein a judgment for the sale of the property will bind the entire world, or affect the interest therein of any owner except those who are made parties defendant in the action. This is ■equally applicable under our statute relative to liens on threshing machines. (See, also, Phillips on Mechanics’ Liens, sec. 395.)

Various reasons are suggested by counsel for respondents why the well-settled rule above stated has no application in this case, but we see no force in any of them. It is urged that the statute contemplates that a judgment against the employer having possession of the property shall bind the owner. We have already considered this point. It is further urged that plaintiff by reason of its contract with the Hubbards under which it delivered possession to the Hubbards was privy to the Hubbards, and therefore within the rule that the parties to the action and their privies are bound by the judgment. Of course, there is nothing in this. As defined by the authorities, a privy within the general rule is one whose succession to the rights of property affected occurred after the institution of the particular suit and from a party thereto (see Orthwein v. Thomas, 127 Ill. 554 , [ 11 Am. St. Rep. 159 , 21 N. E. 430 ]), or who claims under or in right of parties, as an administrator or executor. (See Lipscomb v. Postell, 38 Miss. 476 , [ 77 Am. Dec. 651 ].) As said by Mr. Freeman, they are bound because they have succeeded to some estate or interest which was bound in the hands of its former owner. The rule applicable in this state in this class of cases is shown by subdivison 2 of section 1908 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It is urged that inasmuch as plaintiff was originally brought in as a party defendant in the foreclosure suit, and had actual notice of the pendency of the proceeding, it could, although dismissed from the action by the plaintiffs, have intervened, and thus presented any defense it had, and was bound to do

From what has been said, it is clear that the answer of the sheriff in so far as it rested on the judgment in the foreclosure proceedings did not state facts sufficient to constitute a defense to plaintiff’s action. The answer was effectual as a defense only in so far as it denied the allegations of plaintiff’s complaint. Likewise, the complaint in intervention based entirely on said foreclosure judgment, which upon its face showed that the action had been dismissed by the plaintiffs therein as to this plaintiff, utterly failed to state facts showing' the interveners to be entitled to relief as against plaintiff, and plaintiff’s demurrer thereto should have been sustained. Such judgment could not avail against plaintiff, at least unless it was accompanied by other allegations of fact showing that the interveners had in fact, independent of said judgment, a lien on plaintiff’s property for their services. If it had contained such allegations, and plaintiff had thus been given an opportunity to contest interveners’ claim, it is possible that its property might have been properly held

In view of what we have said it is unnecessary to discuss other points.

The judgment and order denying a new trial are reversed and the cause remanded for proceedings not inconsistent with the views herein discussed.

Shaw, J., and Sloss, J., concurred.