Daily Development for Friday, May 28, 1999

By: Patrick A. Randolph, Jr.
Professor of Law
UMKC School of Law
Of Counsel: Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin
Kansas City, Missouri
prandolph@cctr.umkc.edu

MECHANICS' LIENS; ELECTION OF REMEDIES: Once contractor settles with certain defendants in exchange for release of mechanics' lien, contractor cannot then attempt to execute on property, as property execution is an improper remedy when contractor has already limited himself to the statutory remedy of a mechanics' lien.

Julian Railroad Construction Co. v. Mary Ellen Drive Associates, 717 A.2d 294 (Conn. App. 1998).

The plaintiff had settled with two defendants and agreed to release the mechanics' lien from the property. The court decided that because the contractor had initially chosen the statutory remedy of a mechanics' lien, he could not later switch remedies in mid-stream and attempt to execute on property. Once the mechanics' lien was released the contractor’s sole mechanism for enforcing his judgment had been extinguished.

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