G. W. POPE, D/B/A G. W. POPE COMPANY, APPELLANT,
v.
FRANK A. CARTER ET UX., ET AL., APPELLEES
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A contractor must provide a sworn statement to the owner detailing payments to subcontractors and materialmen to perfect a mechanic's lien, and failure to do so bars the lien.
Plaintiff filed a complaint to foreclose a mechanic's lien for fill dirt and grading services provided to owners developing property. The trial court …
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This is an appeal from an order entered August 26, 1957, dismissing the complaint of G. W. Pope, doing business as G. W. Pope Company, on a motion filed by the Bartow Federal Savings and Loan Association who had intervened in the cause. The complaint sought to foreclose a mechanic’s lien.
The complaint of the plaintiff alleged that the defendant Frank A. Carter and wife, and Donald Hudson and wife, and O. L. Barlow were owners in fee simple of certain properties described therein; that the defendants doing business as Mulberry Home Builders entered into an agreement with the plaintiff to furnish materials and perform the work upon the real property according to a written contract, which is *659attached to the complaint; that the plaintiff furnished the materials and performed the work; that the plaintiff, in compliance with Section 84.04(3) Florida Statutes, F.S. A., filed his claim of lien within three months of the last furnishing of materials or labor.
The exhibit attached to the complaint shows that the work done and the materials supplied was for fill dirt and grading. Exhibit “D”, which was the claim of lien filed, was for performing and furnishing labor, services and materials in the grading, paving and curbing of streets or roads and filling in and grading certain portions of certain described real property which was owned by the defendants who were developing said property under the firm name and style of Mulberry Home Builders.
The Bartow Federal Savings and Loan Association, a corporation, filed a motion to intervene and to dismiss the complaint. The motion to dismiss was granted by the Circuit Judge, only one ground of which we shall note in this opinion. Such ground was that the complaint failed to allege plaintiff had complied with Section 84.04(3) Florida Statutes, F.S.A., which Section requires a contractor to give to the owner a statement under oath stating, if that be the fact, that all lienors contracting directly with or directly employed by such contractor have been paid in full, or, if the fact be otherwise, showing the name of each such lienor who has not been paid in full and the amount due or to become due each for labor or services performed or materials furnished and describing in a general way such labor, services or material. Such Section further provides that the contractor shall have no lien or right of action against the owner for labor or services performed or materials furnished under his contract while in default by reason of not having given the owner such statement under oath.
The plaintiff, appellant here, argues that .he was not required to give the sworn statement required by the above Section for the reason that the owners were their own contractors and that plaintiff was, therefore, a sub-contractor, citing as authority the cases of Orange Plumbing & Heating Company v. Wolfe, Fla.1956, 89 So.2d 671; Richard Store Company v. Florida Bridge & Iron, Inc., Fla.1954, 77 So.2d 632.
Section 84.04 Florida Statutes, F.S.A., defines a contractor as a person other than a materialman or laborer who enters into a contract with the owner of real property for improving it, etc. The complaint filed showed that the contract of the plaintiff was with the owner of the property. There is nothing in the complaint to show that the plaintiff was dealing with the owner in any capacity other than owner of the property. It would be possible under our lien laws for the owner of certain property also to be the builder of houses on the property, dealing with various individuals as sub-contractors for work to be done in the completion of the houses, such as plumbing, electrical work, plastering, and other allied artisan work, and yet contracting as the owner of the property with other individuals as general contractors, such as the plaintiff, in building roads, sewage systems, etc., in the subdivision being developed.
We are of the opinion that the plaintiff in this case was a contractor with the owners and had the duty of furnishing the .statement required under Section 84.04 (3) Florida Statutes, F.S.A. The Florida Supreme Court, in Hardee v. Richardson, Fla.1950, 47 So.2d 520, and in Moore v. Crum, Fla.1953, 68 So.2d 379, held that unless the sworn statement is given within one year after the contractor has filed his claim of lien, the contractor’s lien is lost.
We do not construe the cases cited by the appellant as contrary to the enunciation of law set forth in Hardee v. Richardson, supra, and Moore v. Crum, supra.
We are of the opinion that the lower court was correct in granting the motion to dismiss.
Affirmed.
. KANNER, C. J., and DREW, E. HARRIS, Associate Judge, concur.
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Citator
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Brown v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass'n OF NEW Smyrna, 160 So. 2d 556 (Fla. 1st DCA 1964)…e apparently incorporated in an effort to bring the case within the purview of appellants’ interpretation of and reliance on the hereinafter discussed cases of Orange Plumbing & Heating Company v. Wolfe, 89 So. 2d 671 (Fla.1956), and Pope v. Carter, 102 So. 2d 658 (Fla.App.1958). Attention is here directed to the fact that the allegations to that intent are the pleaders’ conclusions of law and that the same are negatived by our determination of the applicable law in the light of the other allegations of fact…1 / 2
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Stern v. Perma-Stress, Inc., 134 So. 2d 509 (Fla. 1st DCA 1961)…n; and conversely, if the statement was not given within the time fixed by statute, or after the lien had expired, the lien does not exist and foreclosure cannot be maintained. Moore v. Crum (Fla.1953), 68 So. 2d 379; Pope v. Carter (Fla.App. 1958), 102 So. 2d 658; Townsend v. Giles, 133 So. 2d 451, opinion filed by this court September 26, 1961. The failure of the complaint to affirmatively allege the giving by plaintiff Perma-Stress, Inc., of the required statutory notice rendered the complaint fatally defe…
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Oper v. Russell, Inc., 197 So. 2d 13 (Fla. 3d DCA 1967)…for us to treat the other points claimed for reversal. The cause is therefore Reversed. . Fla.App.1961, 128 So. 2d 623. . Dodson v. Florida Nursery & Landscape Co., 138 Fla. 887, 190 So. 695 (1939). . Supra n. 1. . Pope v. Carter, Fla.App.1958, 102 So. 2d 658. . Fla.App.1964, 160 So. 2d 556. . Fla.1956, 89 So. 2d 671.…
Previewing 3 of 7 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Hardee v. Richardson, 47 So.2d 520 (Fla. 1950)
- Orange Plumbing & Heating Co. v. Wolfe, 89 So. 2d 671 (Fla. 1956)
- Moore et ux. v. Crum, 68 So. 2d 379 (Fla. 1953)
- Nicholson v. G. Q. Wyatt and his wife, 77 So. 2d 632 (Fla. 1955)
- The Richard Store Co. v. Fla. Bridge & Iron, Inc., 77 So. 2d 632 (Fla. 1954)