S. G. Purvis & Co. v. Assigned Estate of Brumbaugh

Citations

• 8 Pa. Super. 292
• 1898 Pa. Super. LEXIS 59

Syllabus

<p>Building contract — Covenant against liens — Fraud.</p> <p>The mere fact that the holder of a legal title, subject to a recorded declaration of trust, in favor of trustee’s wife, designates himself in a building contract by the word “ owner,” is not such fraudulent misrepresentation as will debar the wife or her lien creditors from insisting on a covenant, in said building contract, against liens, either as against the contractor or subcontractors.</p> <p>Building contract — Contractor or agent — Covenant against liens.</p> <p>A contractor does not lose his character as such, in his relation to the subcontractors, and become the agent of the owner by virtue of a stipulation in a.building contract, that he will file with the owner a list containing the amounts of the respective bids of all subcontractors and material-men before any payments are made .... that such subcontractors may be paid on order issued by the contractor to the extent of eighty per cent of the value of their work. Such stipulations do not affect a covenant against liens.</p> <p>Contract — Independent covenants — Covenants to pay, and not to file lien.</p> <p>A covenant not to file liens entered into by the contractor and a covenant by the owner to pay in instalments are separate and independent covenants, and failure to meet the instalments does not relieve from the covenant not to file liens. Long v. Caffrey, 98 Pa. 526, followed.</p> <p>Contract — Improvement of wife's real estate — Wife's liability — Mechanic's lien.</p> <p>A husband having, as the agent for his wife, contracted for the erection of a house on the land of the wife, but with a clause waiving right of lien by the contractor, such contractor and subcontractors, are entitled to pro rata distribution of the proceeds of an assignment of the wife’s estate. The creditors’ rights are based, however, on the contractual relations; they have no standing as mechanics’ lien creditors, but must claim as simple contract creditors who, relyin