The Second Department held that filing an order to show cause on NYSCEF did not satisfy Lien Law § 59’s personal-service requirement for vacating a mechanic’s-lien bond.
The Second Department held that a home builder plausibly alleged that the parties’ course of conduct modified written change-order requirements, preserving its lien and contract claims.
Second Department affirms $1.46 million bench trial judgment for contractor: project owner caused the delays, liquidated damages clause was unenforceable, and contractor properly foreclosed mechanic’s lien.
The North Carolina Court of Appeals held that a mechanic’s lien with incorrect (not merely omitted) dates of first and last furnishing is fatally defective under N.C.G.S. § 44A-12, regardless of actual prejudice, and that the cash bond posted to discharge the defective lien must be returned to the property owner even though the contractor prevailed on its breach-of-contract claim at trial.
The First Department affirmed summary judgment dismissing a contractor’s mechanic’s lien foreclosure claim under New York’s Lien Law willful exaggeration defense after the contractor admitted including over $1 million for work never performed, but denied summary judgment on the owner’s conditions-precedent defense because the parties’ course of conduct raised factual issues about whether notice requirements were waived.
The First Department unanimously affirmed extinguishment of a mechanic’s lien under Lien Law §17 after the elevator contractor failed to foreclose within one year, holding that CPLR 321(c) automatic substitution did not apply (counsel died before proceedings began) and that a conclusory law-office-failure excuse cannot vacate a default when the lien has already expired by operation of law.