Proulx v. Stetson & Post Mill Co.

Citations

• 6 Wash. 478
• 33 P. 1067
• 1893 Wash. LEXIS 318

Syllabus

<p>LOGS AND LOGGING — LIENS — UPON WHAT PROPERTY MAY BE CLAIMED — FOR WHAT LABOR — MISTAKE IN AMOUNT DUE — JUDGMENT BY DEFAULT — ATTORNEY FEES.</p> <p>Under §§1679 and 1690, Gen. Stat., one who has performed labor in securing saw logs may enforce a lien against a part of the property upon which he has expended labor for all the labor performed upon the whole lot of saw logs, provided the logs all belonged to the same owner, and the labor was performed under one entire contract. (Stiles, J., dissents.)</p> <p>One who constructs a necessary road by which .certain logs are taken from the forest to the mill, or to the water and afterwards to the mill, or to market, as much assists in obtaining and securing such logs as if he were engaged in cutting or sawing them, and is entitled to a lien for such labor.</p> <p>An innocent mistake in a lien notice as to the exact amount due a laborer for his hire will not defeat the lien.</p> <p>Although a formal default may not have been entered against a defendant before the trial of a cause, yet the supreme court will uphold a judgment against him on appeal, where it appears by the record that the time for answering had expired, and that testimony was given at the trial as to the amounts due from him to plaintiffs.</p> <p>Where the amount of attorney’s fee in an action for the foreclosure of logger’s liens is left to the discretion and decision of the court, a judgment therefor will not be disturbed, although no testimony may have been offered as to the reasonable value of such services.</p>