Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

74 Wis. 208

McKenzie v. Peck

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided April 25, 1889

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1889-04-25

This action was brought to recover a balance due the plaintiff for work and labor in skidding and hauling certain logs for the defendant. The complaint alleges all the facts essential to entitle the plaintiff to a lien on the logs for such balance, pursuant to the statute in that behalf, but no such relief is demanded. The only relief prayed is a personal judgment against the defendant for the balance claimed.

Relies on Edleman v. Kidd · Zwickey v. Haney · Morris v. Peck

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1889-04-25

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently March 1933

5 state decisions

20188918901900191019201930decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Lyon, J.

¶1I. That portion of the judgment which makes the amount thereof a lien upon the logs skidded and hauled by the plaintiff cannot be upheld. No such relief is demanded in the complaint, and no answer has been interposed. In such case the statute is imperative that the relief cannot exceed that demanded in the complaint. It is immaterial that the complaint alleges sufficient facts to show the plaintiff entitled to a lien, had he demanded it. In the absence of such demand, and of an answer, those allegations are inoperative. R. S. sec. 2886. The case of Zwickey v. Haney, 63 Wis. 464, is identical in principle with the present case. See, also, Edleman v. Kidd, 65 Wis. 25, and Morris v. Peck, 73 Wis. 482. But it is unnecessary to cite adjudications on the subject, for the statute is too plain and imperative to admit of any question as to its meaning, or any evasion of its requirements. That it rules a case under the law giving a lien upon logs and timber for labor performed thereon, we cannot doubt. The question of the sufficiency of the attachment was argued, but it is unnecessary to determine it.

¶2II. The judgment against defendant for the amount claimed in the complaint should not be disturbed. The summons was personally served upon him, and the complaint alleges facts which entitle the plaintiff to the personal judgment he demanded and recovered.

¶3By the Court.— The personal judgment against the de*210fendant for the amount demanded is affirmed. That part of the judgment which makes the amount thereof a lien on the logs described therein is reversed. The plaintiff must pay the clerk’s fees, beyond which no costs are allowed to either party.

/74/wis/208 · .json · Public domain