to the effect that the same is in all respects true, or his default may be entered and judgment taken and enforced.

When the amount of the lien claimed is for one hundred dollars or under, the claimant may commence such action in a Justice's Court of the town in which the building is located, by serving a notice upon the owner or his agent any where within this State, requiring such owner to appear before a justice of the town in which the property is situated, which said notice shall contain a statement of the facts constituting the claim, and the amount thereof, and shall require such owner to appear before said justice in person or by attorney at a time certain, not less than thirty days after such service, and answer the same, or in default thereof, that the claimant will take judgment against such owner for the amount so claimed to be due, with interest thereon and costs.

Any laborer performing such labor for a contractor may, withir thirty days after such labor has been performed, and claiming to have a lien therefor, produce and deliver to the owner or his agent a statement in writing, signed by himself and the said contractor, specifying how much is due to such person for such labor done; or in default of so doing, shall take the necessary proceedings against such contractor to procure a settlement of the amount due. The amount so ascertained to be due shall be paid by the owner, and the same shall be deemed to be a payment by the owner on the contract made with such owner or his agent.

In the City of New York, any person or persons who shall hereafter, as contractor, laborer, workman, merchant, or trader, in pursuance of, or in conformity with, the terms of any contract with or employment by the owner, or by or in accordance with the directions of the owner or his agent, perform any labor or furnish any materials towards the erection of, or in altering, it proving or repairing of any building or buildings. or the appurtenances thereto, shall have a lien for the value of such labor and materials, or either, upon such house and the appurtenances and lot on which the same shall stand, to the full value of such claim or demand, and to the extent of the right, title, and interest then existing of the owner of said premises in favor of every person or persons who shall be employed by any owner, contractor, sub-contractor, jobber, or master workman in manner aforesaid, and notwithstanding any sale, transfer or incumbrance made or incurred at any time after the com mencement of the work or furnishing materials; provided that at any time before the whole work is completed, or within three months after the work is done or the materials furnished, for which a lien is sought, if the work is then finished or abandoned, any claimant file with the county clerk a notice, stating the residence of the claimant, verified by his oath or affirmation, stating the amount claimed, from whom, and to whom

due, with a brief description of the premises, by street, number, or a diagram of boundary, or by a reference to maps open to the public, so as to furnish information to persons examining titles, and the supposed owner, although no error in the owner's name shall impair the validity of the lien. The clerk shall enter in a lien docket the name and residence of the claimant, the person against whom claimed, the amount, and the date of filing, the street and particular place where located, and he shall receive ten cents on filing the same. He shall also enter on this docket a notice that a suit is commenced thereon, upon a notice of that fact and affidavit of service being filed with him, for which he shall receive five cents. The county clerk shall make searches for such liens on being furnished with a proper descrip tion of any property and without reference to the individuals against whom the lien is filed, his fees to be five cents per year for the time embraced in said search.

Any person or persons having filed a notice of lien, may, in ten days thereafter, institute a proceeding to enforce or foreclose the lien, and any owner or other person interested may also commence such proceedings, and every person or persons who have filed liens shall be parties to and have notice of the said proceedings, and before final judgment, shall be notified to appear and join in the said proceedings, such notice to be served at least five days before the entering of said judgment. Where the aggregate of liens shall be less than five hundred dollars the said proceedings may be had before any court in the said city, and where they exceed that sum, when the proceedings are commenced, the action shall be conducted in a court of record having equity jurisdiction, and none of the courts in the said city shall be deprived of jurisdiction by reason of the residence of any parties elsewhere, and service of process in such actions may be by publication as to any of the parties not residing in this State, or who may have removed therefrom.

Liens shall in all cases cease after one year, unless by order of court the lien is continued and a new docket made stating such fact without a discharge of the lien.

All former acts giving liens in the City of New York to mechanics and others erecting buildings in the City of New York are repealed, except so far as may be necessary to carry into effect liens acquired before this act takes effect, and any person or persons performing work or furnishing materials under any contract made prior to July first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, may thereafter acquire a lien therefor pursuant to the provisions of this act.

No transfer or assignment of his interest in the contract by the contractors shall be valid as against parties entitled to file liens under said contract against said contractor.

For the purposes of this act, any person or persons who may have sold or disposed of his or their lands upon an executory contract of purchase contingent upon the erection of buildings thereon shall be deemed the owner and his vendee the contractor, and said owner shall in all respects be subject to the provisions of this act.

This act shall take effect on the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three.

In the counties of Kings and Queens.

Any person who shall perform any labor or furnish materials in building, altering or repairing any house, building or other improvement upon lands or appurtenances to such house or building, by virtue of any contract with the owner thereof, or his agent, or with any contractor or sub-contractor, or any person permitted by the owner of such lands to build, repair, alter, or improve as aforesaid, within the counties of Kings or Queens, shall have a lien therefor to the value of the sum agreed to upon the same, to the extent of the right, title, and interest at that time existing, of such owner; provided that within three months after the performance of such labor, or the furnishing of such materials, the contractor, sub-contractor, laborer, person furnishing materials, or other claimant, shall serve a notice in writing upon the county clerk of the county or counties aforesaid, in which the land and premises, or any portion thereof, may be situated, specifying the amount of the claim and the person against whom the claim is made, the name of the owner of the building, and the situation of the building by its street and number, if the number be known. The said county clerk shall enter the particulars of such notice in a book to be kept in his office, to be called "the lien docket." A fee of ten cents shall be paid to the county clerk on filing such lien. copy of said notice shall be served on said owner by delivering the same personally, when possible, or if he be out of this State by delivering the same to his agent personally; and after such service such owner shall not be protected in any payments made by him to such contractor or other claimant in this sectior. specified.

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Every lien created under this act shall continue until the expiration of one year from the creation thereof, and until judgment rendered in any proceedings for the enforcement thereof.

Any claimant, under or by virtue of any such lien or any such notice, may, after such labor has been performed or materials furnished, and after the filing of such notice, enforce or bring to a close such lien, by a civil action in a court of record in the

city or county in which such lands or any portion of them may be situated, at a certain date within thirty days of the service of such notice, and submit to a settlement in such court of the amount claimed to be due.

When the action or proceedings are commenced by a person having a claim against a contractor, with the owner, or against a sub-contractor with the contractor or other sub-contractor, such contractor or sub-contractor may be made a defendant with such owner, and judgment may be rendered against the contractor or sub-contractor for the amount which shall be found owing by him, in addition to the judgment herein before provided for against such owner, and the court may award costs against such of the parties as shall be just.

The lien laws passed in eighteen hundred and fifty-three and eighteen hundred and fifty-eight are now repealed.

NEW JERSEY. Any person furnishing labor or materials for constructing, altering or repairing any building, has a lien therefor upon the same. To render this lien valid, such person must draw up specifications of the work contracted to be performed or materials to be furnished, and stating the price or prices agreed to be paid therefor, and file them, or, if there be a written contract, a true copy thereof, in the office of the County Clerk, and serve a notice thereof personally on such owner or his agent within fifteen days after making such contract, or after furnishing such labor or materials. The lien takes effect from the time of filing such specification and the service of the notice, and remains in force for two months after the completion of the building; previous to the expiration of which term the lienholder must commence legal proceedings against the owner of the property to enforce payment of the claim. The lien holds the building and the lot on which the same may stand.

All fixtures for manufacturing purposes, shall be construed to include any building, erection or construction of whatever description attached or annexed, or intended to be attached or annexed to any land or tenement, and designed to be used in the building or repairing of vessels, whether the same be permanently attached to the freehold, or so built as to be removed from place to place, and only temporarily attached to the land, and whether the same be intended and designed for use on land

or water.

When a contractor refuses to pay any workman employed by him to perform labor on such building, or on the grounds connected therewith, such workman may give a written notice of Buch refusal to the owner of the property, together with a statement of the amount due and demanded; on receipt of which notice the owner is authorized to pay the amount to the work

man, and to retain the same out of the sum due the contractor. When a number of workmer thus present their claims to the owner, the aggregate of such claims must not exceed the amount of the contract. In case the owner should refuse to pay their claims, then the building may be sold for the same; but if the building should not sell for a sum sufficient to pay such claims, then the same shall be averaged, and each creditor be paid a sum proportional to his demand. Action preparatory to the sale must be instituted within one year from the time the work is done or the materials furnished.

PENNSYLVANIA.-Any person furnishing labor or materials for constructing, altering or repairing any building, has a lien therefor on the same, and also on the land for the purposes of the building. This lien takes precedence of all that may subsequently attach. To enforce it, a statement of the claim and of the agreement on which it is founded must be filed in the office of the Prothonotary (Clerk) of the Court of Common Pleas, in the county where the property is situate. If this statement be not so filed, the lien will continue only six months. If it be filed, the lien will remain in force five years from the date of such filing, when it may be renewed by giving the owner notice of the lien-holder's intention to make an application to that effect.

All ships, steamboats or vessels navigating the rivers Alleghany, Monongahela or Ohio, in this State, shall be liable and subject to a lien in the following cases:

First. For all the wages due to hands or persons employed on board such ships, steam or other boats or vessels, for work done, or for services rendered on board or for the same.

Second. For all debts contracted for materials furnished, or work or labor done.

Third. For all bills, bonds, notes, or any other obligation of indebtedness, whether the same be signed and given on account of work or labor done, or materials furnished in the building, repairing, fittting, furnishing, equipping or insuring, or for sums due for wharfage or anchorage, such ships, steam or other boats or vessels as hereinbefore specified or enumerated: Provided, That the lien of the same shall continue in favor and to the benefit of all and every party or parties whomsoever, into whose hands the same may have passed by transfer, assignment or otherwise.

No more than three months' wages can be recovered in any suit upon a lien in the first class above specified, and the suit