Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/278

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“Any owner or lessee of a threshing machine who threshes grain for another therewith shall, upon filing the statement provided for in the next section, have a lien upon such grain for the value of his services in threshing the same from the date of the commencement of the threshing.” § 6854, C. L. 1913.

“Any person entitled to a lien under this chapter shall, within thirty days after the threshing is completed, file in the office of the register of deeds of the county in which the grain was grown a statement in writing, verified by oath, showing the amount and quantity of grain threshed, the price agreed upon for threshing the same, the name of the person for whom the threshing was done and a description of the land upon which the grain was grown.” § 6855, C. L. 1913.

The defendant contends that the lien statement in this case does not show the price agreed upon for threshing the grain, within the purview of the statute. The defendant takes the position that the statute contemplates that the price fixed or charged shall be at so much per bushel, and that a thresher’s lien does not arise, and none can be claimed, where the compensation is based on any other basis than that of so much per bushel. In other words, it is contended that in this specific case a lien did not arise, and that the lien filed is fatally defective, for the reason that the lien filed does not show that a rate per bushel was agreed upon, but, on the contrary, shows that the compensation fixed was at so much per hour for the time employed. In our opinion this contention is not well founded. It will be noted that the statute does not say that the lien statement must show the rate per bushel. The statute requires that the lien show these things: (1) The amount and quantity of grain threshed; (2) the price agreed upon for threshing the same; (3) the name of the person for whom the threshing was done; and (4) a description of the land upon which the grain was grown. There are obvious reasons for requiring the lien statement to show these things. They furnish not only a statement of the amount of the claim, according to the agreement of the parties, but the facts from which the amount of the claim can be computed, and a description of the specific property upon which the lien is claimed.

The Supreme Court of Minnesota has ruled that a thresher’s lien may be claimed where the threshing is done under a contract whereby the thresher’s compensation is fixed at so much per day, even where the statute provides that the lien statement shall show the rate per bushel.