RUCKLE AND GUARINO INC v. Edgewater Park Owners Cooperative Inc., Defendant. (2008)

Judgment, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Janice L. Bowman, J.), entered May 24, 2007, awarding plaintiff the principal sum of $80,000, payable from a mechanic's lien discharge bond filed by defendants Hangan and International Fidelity, unanimously reversed, on the law, with costs, the judgment vacated, and the matter remanded for further proceedings.   Appeals from orders, same court and Justice, entered December 26, 2006, which granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgment to enforce the lien, and April 17, 2007, which, to the extent appealable, denied the motion by Hangan and International Fidelity to renew the prior order, unanimously dismissed as subsumed in the appeal from the judgment.

 To establish the right to enforce a mechanic's lien, the contractor, or in this case the subcontractor, must make a prima facie case that the lien is valid, and that it is entitled to the amount asserted in the lien (8 Warren's Weed New York Real Property § 92.11[3][a] [5th ed.], citing Cramer v. Esswein, 220 App.Div. 10, 220 N.Y.S. 634 [1927];  see LHV Precast Inc. v. Woodstock Lawn & Home Maintenance, 296 A.D.2d 736, 744 N.Y.S.2d 915 [2002] ).   Plaintiff did not adduce sufficient evidence to establish prima facie entitlement to summary judgment enforcing the lien.   Notably, the proposal on which plaintiff relies postdates the work performed, and plaintiff's evidence failed to establish that plaintiff is entitled to the amount asserted in the lien, i.e., $80,000.