McCreary

The action was to foreclose a mechanic’s lien, and the appeal is from the judgment in favor of plaintiff and from an order denying a motion for a new trial. Respondent has made no appearance in this court and it is fair to assume that he has abandoned the case. His attorney in the court below died after the appeal was taken, and respondent failed to secure other counsel to represent him. The points made here for a reversal seem to have been urged at the trial and on the motion for a new trial, and we regret that we have not been furnished with the views of respondent and of the trial judge on the questions herein presented. However, we have given the record careful examination, and we are satisfied that respondent’s claim for lien cannot be maintained.

The second subdivision of section 1183 of the Code of Civil Procedure, as amended in 1911, [Stats. 1911, p. 1313], gives persons who perform labor in any mining claim a lien for the value of the labor done, and it provides that the superintendent shall be considered the agent of the owner for the purposes of the Mechanic’s Lien Act.

This is the only statute on the subject applicable to an oil well. (Berentz v. Belmont Oil Min.…