Hall v. Blackburn

Citations

• 173 Pa. 310
• 34 A. 18
• 1896 Pa. LEXIS 701

Syllabus

<p>Mechanic's lien — Original construction — Wooden partition.</p> <p>A wooden partition eleven feet by eleven feet four inches erected for office purposes in a room in an old building is not a part of the original structure within the meaning of the mechanic’s lien law.</p> <p>A building was erected in 1878 to be used as a music hall. The building was subsequently leased, and the lease provided that improvements put upon the premises by the lessee should be left thereon upon the surrender of the premises. In 1887 plaintiff filed a mechanic’s lien against the building. The bill of particulars appended to the lien averred that plaintiff had contracted “to partition off by a wooden partition, eleven feet by eleven feet four inches from one of the rooms in the building, on the premises, two hundred and sixty feet northward from the north side of Columbia avenue, a space of the foregoing dimensions for office purposes.” At the trial of the scire facias the evidence as to the nature of the construction sustained the averment in the bill of particulars. The court charged that if the work done by the plaintiff was a part of the original building the verdict should be for the plaintiff. Held,, to be error, as the work lacked every mark of being part of the original structure.</p> <p>Mechanic's lien — Payment into court.</p> <p>Payment into court by the owner of a building of the amount of a mechanic’s lien, for the purpose of discharging the lien, is not an acknowledgment of the claimant’s right of action.</p>