Dizard & Getty, Inc., a Corporation v. Alex Wiley, Trustee in Bankruptcy in the Matter of Grant Corson Henry

Dizard & Getty, Inc., a masonry contractor, performed work and furnished materials for Grant Corson Henry, a speculative builder who is now a bankrupt, on houses numbered “1” and “2” on Mercer Island in King County, Washington. For this Henry owed Dizard and Getty (D & G) the respective unpaid sums of $1,280.24 and $1,334.96. For these sums, at one time at least, D & G had inchoate liens on the properties at sites 1 and 2.

We deal here with whether D & G has lost its security as against Wiley, Henry’s trustee in bankruptcy. The referee, affirmed by the district court, has held the liens gone: that there is no security left.

Henry was adjudicated a bankrupt on or about May 6, 1960. The first meeting of creditors was May 24, 1960. The respective asserted liens for work and materials had been severally recorded theretofore in the appropriate recording office of King County, Washington, on March 29 and April 6, 1960. No steps were ever taken to formally foreclose the asserted liens and D & G never filed a secured claim as such in the bankruptcy. The failure to do so has been held fatal by the referee and the district court.

It appears that about August 1, 1960, the trustee found…