EXCHANGE NATIONAL BANK OF TAMPA, APPELLANT.
v.
BESSIE KENNEDY, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
Exchange National Bank held a chattel mortgage on an abstract plant and challenged a laborer's lien for work performed maintaining the plant. The Florida Supreme Court held that a mortgagee takes a mortgage on an abstract plant with constructive notice that the plant is continuously under construction and that laborers acquire liens for their work, so the laborer's lien has priority over the bank's mortgage.
A mortgagee of an abstract plant takes the mortgage with constructive notice that the plant is continuously under construction and that laborers performing such work acquire liens for their labor. Therefore, the laborer's lien has priority over the mortgage, and the laborer need not file notice of lien to perfect it.
“an abstract plant is a thing which is under continuous construction. Its records must be built up from day to day as transfers and other documents are filed and recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court”
Establishes that abstract plants are continuously under construction, a matter of common knowledge
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceBessie Kennedy performed labor maintaining the books, records, and files of the abstract plant owned by Sumter Abstract Company in Bushnell, Florida. …
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Chattel Mortgage cases and more on FLexlaw
The appellee filed a bill of complaint against Sumter Abstract Company, a corporation, and Exchange National Bank, a corporation, doing a banking business in Hillsborough County, Florida, in which she sought to fore*387close a lien for labor performed by the complainant on the books, records and files' constituting the abstract plant of Sumter Abstract Company, located in Bushnell, Florida. The defendant, Exchange National Bank, held a chattel mortgage on the abstract plant. The record shows that the last work done by the complainant for the defendant in maintaining its abstract plant was on the 7th day of August, 1930. The bill of complaint was filed on the 16th day of February, 1931. Therefore it appears that the suit was filed within twelve months from the performance of the last work on the abstract plant. The record shows1 that the mortgage was made, executed and delivered during the time that the complainant was so engaged in such work on the abstract plant.
It is a matter of common knowledge of which all persons must take notice that an abstract plant is a thing which is under continuous construction. Its records must be built up from day to day as transfers and other documents are filed and recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the County to which the abstract plant applies. The construction of the plant, to make it of value and dependable, must go on from day to day. It is also a matter of common knowledge, and of which all must take notice, that clerical labor is required to perform that work incident to the continuing and continuous construction of such a plant.
It follows, therefore, that one who makes a chattel mortgage on an abstract plant takes such mortgage with notice that the plant is at all times in the course of construction and that those who are employed in such construction acquire by the rendering of such services a lien for their labor upon such plant.
Such a lien is within the purview of Section 505 R. G. S. 5366 C. G. L. and Section 3517 R. G. S., 5380 C. G. L.
*388It, therefore, follows that Exchange National Bank took its mortgage, with notice of the lien in favor of the complainant.
The mortgagee having taken the mortgage with constructive notice of the lien of the complainant, it was not necesary for her to file any notice of lien in the office of the Clerk of the Circuit Court. In fact, there is no provision of the law' which contemplates the filing of a notice of lien in such cases. The fact that the record shows that she did file a lien within three months after the performance of the last work is immaterial.
The decree should be affirmed and it is so ordered.
Affirmed.
Whitfield, P. J. and Brown, J., concur.
Davis, C. J., and Terrell, J., concur in the opinion and judgment.
Ellis, J., concurs in the conclusion.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
Smith v. Atl. Boat Builder Co., 356 So. 2d 359 (Fla. 1st DCA 1978)…onale of the International Harvester case, it is upon that equity, but only that equity, that the bank’s lien on after-acquired property attached. The same logic was applied by the Supreme Court of Florida in Exchange Nat. Bank of Tampa v. Kennedy, 109 Fla. 386, 147 So. 572 (1933). In that case Kennedy, an employee of an abstract plant, sought priority of a lien claimed under a statute similar to the one under which appellants claim sub judice. The bank held a chattel mortgage on the abstract plant. It was…