52-127. Terms, defined.

As used in sections 52-125 to 52-159, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) Claimant shall mean a person having a right to a lien under sections 52-125 to 52-159 upon real estate and includes his or her successor in interest;

(2) Contract price shall mean the amount agreed upon by the contracting parties for performing services and furnishing materials covered by the contract, increased or diminished by the price of change orders or extras, amounts attributable to altered specifications, or breach of contract, including but not limited to defects in workmanship or materials. Liquidation of damages between the owner and a prime contractor does not diminish the contract price as to other claimants. If no price is agreed upon by the contracting parties, contract price shall mean the reasonable value of all services or materials covered by the contract;

(3) Contracting owner shall mean a person who owns real estate and who, personally or through an agent, enters into a contract, express or implied, for the improvement of the real estate;

(4) Construction lien or lien shall mean a lien arising under sections 52-125 to 52-159, and shall not include a security interest;

(5) Notice of commencement shall mean the notice specified in section 52-145, whether recorded by an owner or by a claimant;

(6) Notice of termination shall mean a notice terminating a notice of commencement;

(7) Prime contract shall mean any real estate improvement contract made between the contracting owner and a prime contractor;

(8) Prime contractor shall mean any person who makes a real estate improvement contract with a contracting owner;

(9) Services shall not include financing or activities in connection with financing;

(10) Construction security interest shall mean a security interest created by a security agreement that contains a legend on the first page clearly stating that it is a Construction Security Agreement and that secures an obligation which the debtor incurred for the purpose of making an improvement of the real estate in which the security interest is given if the instrument recorded to perfect the interest states that it is a construction security interest;

(11) Good faith shall mean honesty in fact and the observance of reasonable standards of fair dealing in the conduct or transaction involved;

(12) Judicial proceeding shall mean action at law or suit in equity, and any other proceeding in which rights are judicially determined;

(13) To record shall mean to present to the register of deeds for the county where the land is situated a document which he or she accepts and either enters in a daily log or notes thereon an identifying number, regardless of whether under applicable law the register of deeds is directed to file the document or otherwise to maintain a record of it. Recorded and recording have corresponding meanings;

(14) Record location shall mean the location, whether book and page, document number, electronic retrieval code, or other specific place, of a document in the public records accessible in the same recording office where the document containing the reference to the location is found; and

(15) Security interest shall mean a consensual interest in real estate which secures payment or performance of an obligation.

Source

Annotations

A potential purchaser's interest in a property does not satisfy the requirements of "contracting owner" under subsection (3) of this section, and, therefore, potential purchasers cannot limit their liability under subsection (5) of section 52-136 for construction liens properly recorded before the filing of their own title document. Lincoln Lumber Co. v. Lancaster, 260 Neb. 585, 618 N.W.2d 676 (2000).

Vendor of real estate held not to be "contracting owner," where the executory contract did not require construction of improvements ordered by purchaser necessary to subject the vendor's interest in the property to a construction lien filed by supplier. Tuttle & Assoc. v. Gendler, 237 Neb. 825, 467 N.W.2d 881 (1991).