Any person who shall, by his own labor, or by using his livestock, machinery or appliances, or both, do or perform any work or render any service in connection with felling, preparing or transporting any logs, or in manufacturing lumber or other timber products from such logs, including the production of tanbark, shall have a lien upon any and all of such logs and upon any and all of the lumber and other timber products manufactured therefrom, whether said work was done or service was rendered on the logs themselves, or any of them, or in manufacturing the lumber or other timber products from them, for the value of such labor done and for the value of the use of such livestock, machinery and appliances, or both, whether said work was done or service was rendered at the instance of the owner of such logs or timber products manufactured therefrom, or of any other person acting by his authority or under him, directly or indirectly, as contractor or otherwise; and every contractor, subcontractor or other person having charge of the felling, preparing or transporting of the said logs or of their manufacture into timber products shall be held to be the agent of the said owner for the purposes of this section.
The liens provided for in this section shall attach from the date of the commencement of such work or labor, or the date of the commencement of the use of such livestock, machinery or appliances, as the case may be, and shall be preferred liens, prior in dignity to all other liens, claims or encumbrances, except the landowner’s claim for a reasonable stumpage in cases where the landowner himself is not the direct employer or contractor, as the case may be. They shall not be limited as to amount by any contract price agreed upon between the owner of said logs or timber products manufactured therefrom and any contractor, except as hereinafter provided, but said several liens shall not in any case exceed in amount the reasonable value of the labor done, or the reasonable value of the use of the livestock, machinery or appliances for which the lien is claimed, nor the price agreed upon for the same between the claimant and the person by whom he was employed or with whom the agreement to use livestock, machinery or appliances was made, nor in any case, where the claimant was employed by a contractor, or subcontractor, shall the lien extend to any labor or the use of any livestock, machinery or appliances not embraced within, contemplated by, covered by, or reasonably necessary to the execution of, the original contract between the contractor and the owner of such logs or timber products manufactured therefrom, or any modification thereof made by or with the consent of such owner, and of which said contract, or modification thereof, the claimant shall have had actual notice before the performance of such labor or the use of such livestock, machinery or appliances.
The recording of such original contract, or modification thereof, in the office of the county recorder of the county in which the timberland on which the work is to be done is situated or in which the logs are to be manufactured into timber products, as the case may be, before the commencement of the work, shall be equivalent to the giving of such actual notice by the owner to all persons performing work or using livestock, machinery or appliances thereunder. In case said original contract shall, before the work is commenced, be so recorded, together with a bond of the contractor with good and sufficient sureties in an amount not less than fifty (50) percent of the contract price named in said contract, which bond shall in addition to any conditions for the performance of the contract, be also conditioned for the payment in full of the claims of all persons performing labor, or using livestock, machinery or appliances, in the execution of such contract and shall also by its terms be made to inure to the benefit of any and all persons who perform labor or use livestock, machinery or appliances in the execution of the work to be done under the contract so as to give such persons, and their assigns or successors in interest, a right of action to recover upon said bond in any suit brought to enforce the liens provided for in this section, or in a separate suit brought on said bond, then the court must, where it would be equitable so to do, restrict the recovery under such liens to an aggregate amount equal to the amount found to be due from the owner of the said logs or timber products manufactured therefrom to the contractor, and render judgment against the contractor and his sureties on said bond for any deficiency or difference there may remain between said amount so found to be due to the claimants for such labor and for the use of such livestock, machinery and appliances. It is the intent and purpose of this section to limit the owner’s liability, in all cases, to the measure of the contract price where he shall have filed or cause to be filed, in good faith, with his original contract a valid bond with good and sufficient sureties in the amount and upon the conditions herein provided. It shall be lawful for the owner of such logs and timber products to protect himself against any failure of the contractor to perform his contract and make full payment for all work done thereunder by exacting such bond or other security as he may deem satisfactory.
(Amended by Stats. 1973, Ch. 665.)
Last modified: October 25, 2018