{"id":893526,"date":"2018-01-25T12:23:14","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T19:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=893526"},"modified":"2018-01-25T12:23:14","modified_gmt":"2018-01-25T19:23:14","slug":"washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jennifer McMillan Beyerlein | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lanepowell.com\/Our-Insights\/130321\/Washington-Supreme-Court-Upholds-Rule-That-Property-Owner-and-General-Contractor-Are-Not-Indispensable-Parties-in-a-Lien-Foreclosure-Action-Against-the-Surety-of-the-Lien-Release-Bond\" target=\"_blank\">Lane Powell<\/a> | January 18, 2018<\/p>\n<p>Today, the Washington Supreme Court has clarified any misunderstanding about the necessary parties in a mechanic\u2019s lien foreclosure action when a lien release bond has been posted.\u00a0In\u00a0<em>Inland Empire Dry Wall Supply Co. v. Western Surety Co.<\/em>, the Court upheld a divided Court of Appeals by allowing a lien foreclosure action brought by a material supplier to proceed solely against the surety securing the lien release bond.\u00a0Inland Empire Dry Wall Supply Company alleged that it was not paid for drywall supplied to an apartment complex in Richland, Washington.\u00a0Inland Empire filed a pre-claim notice and a mechanic\u2019s lien against the property.\u00a0The general contractor, Fowler General Construction, obtained a lien release bond from Western Surety Company, which identified Fowler as the \u201cPrincipal\u201d and Western Surety as the \u201cSurety.\u201d\u00a0Ultimately, Inland Empire filed a lien foreclosure action solely against Western Surety seeking to foreclose its lien claim against bond.<\/p>\n<p>Western Surety sought dismissal of the action, arguing that Inland Empire failed to properly include Fowler as the principal on the bond as required under the mechanic\u2019s lien statute.\u00a0The trial court granted summary judgment against Inland Empire, finding that the material supplier was required by statute to bring its lien foreclosure action against both the surety and the purchaser of the bond, Fowler.\u00a0The trial court held that because the bond was the subject of the claim of lien, in place of the apartment complex, that both Fowler and Western Surety were the \u201cowners\u201d of the bond \u2014 making both indispensable parties to the lien foreclosure action.\u00a0Division III of the Court of Appeals, in a split decision, disagreed last January, holding that the only necessary party to a lien foreclosure action involving a lien release bond was the surety.<\/p>\n<p>In reviewing the statutory history of mechanic\u2019s liens in Washington, the Supreme Court noted that the owner of the real property is required to be named in actions where no lien release bond is filed.\u00a0The Court noted that this makes sense given that forfeiture of the property would be required in order to enforce payment of amounts owed under a mechanic\u2019s lien.\u00a0When a lien release bond is obtained, however, the real property is released from the lien and becomes \u201cunreachable\u201d and the bond becomes the security for enforcement of payment.\u00a0In strictly reading the mechanic\u2019s lien statutes, the Court found that neither the real property owner nor the entity who purchased the lien release bond are necessary parties in any action to enforce the lien against the surety who posted the lien release bond.\u00a0This is because the surety is substituted for the real property owner in the eyes of the mechanic\u2019s lien statutes for purposes of enforcement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Practice Tip:<\/strong>\u00a0In dicta, the Court noted that when a property owner or other party to a lien foreclosure action obtains a lien release bond\u00a0<em>after<\/em>\u00a0a lien foreclosure action is initiated, the lien claimant should amend its pleadings to specifically seek to foreclose on the lien release bond to avoid a situation where there is a judgment in favor of the lien claimant, but no security to enforce the judgment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jennifer McMillan Beyerlein | Lane Powell | January 18, 2018 Today, the Washington Supreme Court has clarified any misunderstanding about the necessary parties in a mechanic\u2019s lien foreclosure action when a lien release bond has been posted.\u00a0In\u00a0Inland Empire Dry Wall Supply Co. v. Western Surety Co., the Court upheld a divided Court of Appeals by&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[9895,184,306],"class_list":["post-893526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mechanics-lien-rights","tag-advise-consult","tag-mechanics-lien-law","tag-washington","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington Supreme Court has clarified any misunderstanding about the necessary parties in a mechanic\u2019s lien foreclosure action\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington Supreme Court has clarified any misunderstanding about the necessary parties in a mechanic\u2019s lien foreclosure action\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-01-25T19:23:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@adviseconsult\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7\"},\"headline\":\"Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-25T19:23:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/\"},\"wordCount\":562,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Advise &amp; Consult\",\"Mechanics Lien Law\",\"Washington\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Mechanics Lien Rights\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/\",\"name\":\"Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-01-25T19:23:14+00:00\",\"description\":\"Washington Supreme Court has clarified any misunderstanding about the necessary parties in a mechanic\u2019s lien foreclosure action\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.\",\"description\":\"Construction Expert Witnesses\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Advise & Consult\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AC-Red-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AC-Red-Logo.png\",\"width\":162,\"height\":75,\"caption\":\"Advise & Consult\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/adviseconsult\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company-beta\/204526\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/MrConstructionExpert\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b01e71b7acadd7657af782b7ad1a30cc?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b01e71b7acadd7657af782b7ad1a30cc?s=96&d=mm&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.expertwitnessinconstruction.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.","description":"Washington Supreme Court has clarified any misunderstanding about the necessary parties in a mechanic\u2019s lien foreclosure action","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.","og_description":"Washington Supreme Court has clarified any misunderstanding about the necessary parties in a mechanic\u2019s lien foreclosure action","og_url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/","og_site_name":"Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/","article_published_time":"2018-01-25T19:23:14+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@adviseconsult","twitter_site":"@adviseconsult","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7"},"headline":"Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond","datePublished":"2018-01-25T19:23:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/"},"wordCount":562,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Advise &amp; Consult","Mechanics Lien Law","Washington"],"articleSection":["Mechanics Lien Rights"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/","name":"Washington Supreme Court Upholds Rule That Property Owner and General Contractor Are Not Indispensable Parties in a Lien Foreclosure Action Against the Surety of the Lien Release Bond - Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-01-25T19:23:14+00:00","description":"Washington Supreme Court has clarified any misunderstanding about the necessary parties in a mechanic\u2019s lien foreclosure action","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/washington-supreme-court-upholds-rule-property-owner-general-contractor-not-indispensable-parties-lien-foreclosure-action-surety-lien-release-bond\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/","name":"Advise &amp; Consult, Inc.","description":"Construction Expert Witnesses","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Advise & Consult","url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AC-Red-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/AC-Red-Logo.png","width":162,"height":75,"caption":"Advise & Consult"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Advise-Consult-Inc-126949043996790\/","https:\/\/x.com\/adviseconsult","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company-beta\/204526\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/MrConstructionExpert"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0a11abe008083d5fb19c2b0feefe7bd7","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b01e71b7acadd7657af782b7ad1a30cc?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b01e71b7acadd7657af782b7ad1a30cc?s=96&d=mm&r=pg","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.expertwitnessinconstruction.com"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ztG6-3KrI","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":893527,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893526\/revisions\/893527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}