duly paid and satisfied, and that the claimant under said lien, and his attorney, have died or removed from this state since the filing of said lien, and said lien still remains on record as unsatisfied, the judge of said court shall have power to forthwith order the clerk of said court to enter a discharge of said lien in said lien docket, opposite the entry of said lien.

32. Any landowner desiring to contest any claim, and to free his building and land from the lien thereof, may pay to the county clerk the amount of such claim, with interest thereon, for six months after such payment, and twenty-five dollars in addition thereto, with notice to said clerk not to pay over the same until such claim be established by suit; which sum, or so much thereof as is necessary, shall be paid to such claimant upon his obtaining judgment against such building and lands, in the manner prescribed in this act, and said claim shall from the payment of such money to such clerk, be a lien on said money, and said building and lands shall be discharged therefrom, and no execution shall issue against the same by virtue of such judgment; but if such suit is not commenced within the time at which the said lands would be discharged by the provisions of this act without suit, or in case judgment be given therein without being against said lands, said sum shall be repaid to him by said clerk, and if judgment be given against such lands for an amount less than that so deposited, then the surplus shall be returned by said clerk to said landowner.

33. The act entitled "An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building" (Revision), approved March twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, and all acts amendatory thereof and supplemental thereto, except so far as incorporated herein and re-enacted herein, are hereby repealed; and all acts and parts of acts, general and special, inconsistent with this act, are hereby repealed; but this repealer shall not revive any act heretofore repealed.

34. The repeal of any statutory provision by this act shall not affect or impair any act done or right vested or accrued or any building lien filed or any proceeding, suit or prosecution commenced before such repeal takes effect; but every such act done or right vested or accrued or building lien filed, or proceeding, suit or prosecution had or commenced, shall remain in full force and effect to all intents and purposes, as if such statutory provision so repealed had remained in force, except that where the course of practice or procedure for the

enforcement of such right or such building lien or proceeding, suit or prosecution shall be changed, all suits pending or thereafter commenced shall be conducted as near as may be in accordance with such altered practice or procedure.

35. Whenever in describing or referring to any person, party, matter or thing, any word importing the singular number or masculine gender is used in this act, the same shall be understood to include, and shall apply to, several persons and parties as well as one person or party, and females as well as males, and bodies corporate as well as individuals, and several matters and things as well as one matter or thing, unless it be otherwise provided, or there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction. Approved June 14th, 1898.

CHAPTER 227.

An Act to repeal sundry acts relative to mechanics' liens.

Be it enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. The act entitled "An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building," Revision approved March 27, 1874, is hereby repealed.

2. The act entitled "A supplement to the act entitled 'An act to secure mechanics and others payment for labor and materials in erecting any building,'" approved March 30, 1876, is hereby repealed.

3. The act entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building,' (Revision), approved March twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four," which amendatory act was approved March 9, 1877, is hereby repealed.

4. The act entitled "A supplement to an act entitled 'An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building,' (Revision), approved March twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four," which supplement was approved April 1, 1878, is hereby repealed.

5. The act entitled "A further supplement to an act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building, approved March twenty-seventh, one thousand

eight hundred and seventy-four," which supplement was approved March 4, 1879, is hereby repealed.

6. The act entitled "A further supplement to the act entitled 'An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building,' extending liens to alterations," which supplement was approved February 8, 1883, is hereby repealed.

7. The act entitled "A supplement to an act entitled 'An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building,' (Revision), approved March twenty-seventh; one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four," which supplement was approved April 25, 1884, is hereby repealed.

8. The act entitled "A supplement to an act entitled 'An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building,' (Revision), approved March twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four," which supplement was approved April 16, 1888, is hereby repealed.

9. The act entitled "A supplement to an act entitled 'An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building,' approved March twenty-seventh, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four," which supplement was approved June 19, 1890, is hereby repealed.

10. The act entitled "A supplement to an act entitled 'An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building,' approved March twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, for the purpose of extending the rights and remedies under said act to the labor performed and materials furnished to and for the removal of any building or buildings or part or parts of a building from one curtilage to that of another; and further to extend the lien for such removal to the land or curtilage to which the said building, buildings or part or parts of a building shall be removed and located under the contract," approved March 17, 1893, is hereby repealed.

11. The act entitled "A supplement to an act entitled 'An ac to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building' (Revision), approved March twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four," which supplement was approved March 14, 1895, is hereby repealed.

12. The act entitled "Supplement to an act entitled 'An act to

secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building,'" approved March 19, 1896, is hereby repealed.

13. The act entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'A supplement to an act entitled "An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building " (Revision), approved March twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four,' which supplement was approved March fourteenth, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five," which amendatory act was approved March 30, 1896, is hereby repealed.

14. An act entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'A supplement to an act entitled "An act to secure to mechanics and others payment for their labor and materials in erecting any building," approved March twenty-seventh, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four,' which supplement was approved June nineteenth, one thousand eight hundred and ninety," and which amendatory act was approved March twenty-ninth, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-two, is hereby repealed.

15. Nothing herein shall affect or impair any right vested or accrued before this act takes effect. This act shall not operate to revive any act heretofore repealed.

Approved June 14th, 1898.

DECISIONS OF NEW JERSEY COURTS.

EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY-FELLOW-SERVANTS-COMMON

EMPLOYMENT.

John McLaughlin v. Camden Iron Works.

Opinion by Collins, J., Court of Errors and Appeals, June Term, 1897. 31 Vroom 557.

The plaintiff sought recovery for personal injuries alleged to be due to the defendant's negligence. The declaration averred that, while in the employment of the defendant as a riveter, the plaintiff was ordered by the defendant to leave his employment and assist in raising a large frame of great weight, and that by reason of the defendant's careless omission to supply and use, in raising the frame,

the means necessary to raise the same and hold it in place while being raised, it fell and injured the plaintiff.

At the trial the plaintiff was nonsuited at the close of his case, on the ground that his injury was the result of the negligence of a fellow servant in the same common employment. Upon the consequent judgment, the writ in this case was brought and the nonsuit is assigned for error.

The proof was as follows: The defendant (a corporation) was engaged in building a large iron gas-holder. Its roof was to be supported by a wooden structure formed by four timbered frames. One of these lay flat on the ground, and about twenty-five men of the general laboring force were called by the foreman to raise it by hand.. The plaintiff, whose ordinary work was riveting, was one of the number. A block and fall was used, not for additional power, but as a guy and to hold the weight of the frame as it rose. The frame was not braced or fastened, and one end of it slewed around, the rope slackened and the frame fell, striking and badly injuring the plaintiff. Afterwards the frame was raised by a rigger, using a derrick and appliances. On the subject forming the gravamen of the plaintiff's complaint, the only testimony was that of two witnesses, one a laborer named Corbett, who said that raising the frame was a rigger's work, and the other a carpenter named Tice, who said that he supposed “it would take a rigger to handle that sort of a frame," and again, that he believed "it was generally a rigger's work to handle a frame of that weight and size." When asked his opinion of the method of raising in use at the time of the accident, he said that he did not think such a method safe, but, on cross-examination, he said that with both ends of the frame securely fastened, the men could have raised it in that way. A witness named Barker, who ran a hoisting engine at the works and saw the accident, was called to testify that he warned the foreman that he was doing an unsafe thing. On cross-examination, he said that the danger apparent to him could have been removed by bracing or fastening the end of the frame that afterwards slid. He said that all that was needed was a rope and a stake. Another witness, named Davis, testified, on the plaintiff's own call, that the frame slewed around because it had no fastening at the bottom.

Of course, the defendant was not obliged to hire a rigger or use a derrick. The plaintiff knew that the frame was being raised by hand, under the direction of the foreman, and he assumed such resultant risk