Flandreau v. White

Decided July 1, 1861

California Supreme Court · decided 1861-07-01

Plaintiffs obtained two judgments against one Downey upon complaints filed on the thirteenth of September, 1858, in actions to enforce liens for lumber furnished for and used in the construction of two buildings—a stable and another building. The summons in each action was dated September 13th, 1858, and placed in the Sheriff’s»hands on the fifteenth of that month—meanwhile remaining in the Clerk’s office.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1861-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently June 1899

5 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Baldwin, J. delivered the opinion of the Court

¶1Field, C. J. and Cope, J. concurring.

¶2Judgment affirmed. The suit was not brought within six months from the expiration of the credit. The mere filing of a complaint is not sufficient to constitute a suit brought within the meaning of the Mechanics’ Lien Law. The filing of the complaint and the issuing of the summons are required by the General Practice Act, and the provision in the General Limitation Act, (Wood’s Dig. 45) that the filing of the complaint shall* be deemed a commencement of the suit, applies to that act only, and not to the Mechanics’ Lien Law.