Opinion
8 Div. 419.
April 19, 1923.
Appeal from Circuit Court, Lauderdale County; Chas. P. Almon, Judge.
Andrews Peach and Clopper Almon, all of Sheffield, for appellants.
Under the statute, no lien can be created without a contract with the owner or proprietor, or his agent or trustee. Hence, if a minor cannot make a valid contract, the minor cannot fasten a lien on his property. Code 1907, § 4754.
Wm. Milliken, of Florence, for appellees.
The lien is the creation of law, not of contract. A proceeding for the purpose of fastening a lien does not contemplate a personal judgment, but a charge against the property. The law makes binding in such cases decrees against the property of minors. A void contract will not avail, but a minor's contract is not ipso facto void. Crawford v. Sterling, 155 Ala. 511, 46 So. 849; King v. Woodlawn Lbr. Co., 201 Ala. 539, 78 So. 893; Porter v. Miles, 67 Ala. 130; Code 1907, §§ 4768, 4782.
The decisive question in this case is whether or not a minor can so contract with a mechanic or materialman as to fasten a lien on the minor's property under section 4754 of the Code.
This question has been recently considered by this court in R. A. Richardson et al. v. T. B. Little, 96 So. 144, wherein it was ruled that a minor could not so contract, and the existence of the lien was denied.
Post, p. 351.
On the authority of that case the decree herein must be pronounced erroneous.
The decree of the circuit court, in equity, will be reversed, and a decree will be here rendered denying relief and dismissing the bill of complaint.
Reversed and rendered.
ANDERSON, C. J., and McCLELLAN and THOMAS, JJ., concur.