The court therefore orders the removal of the legal construction lien notice and confirms the validity of the release, even though it is customary to require a builder's release to be accompanied by a resolution. We can now boldly claim that a quick and hasty solution is just as good as one obtained in tranquility and comfort.
Progressive disbursements, during a construction, are often the fear of financial institutions and lawyers. Who has the right to publish a legal construction mortgage? Was it published according to the rules and in a timely manner? Finally, are the supplier receipts valid? So many questions that delight the courts.
Thus, a couple who has undertaken the construction of their residence signs a contract with a supplier of interior finishing materials. This supplier purchases its materials from a second supplier, who cancels their contract with the couple. After making several payments to the first supplier, the couple receives a final receipt from the second supplier, confirming that they have received the final payment of all amounts due. A few days later, the first supplier also gives a receipt to the couple.
A month goes by, and the second supplier files a notice of registration of a legal mortgage alleging that sums are still owed to them. They go to Court and ask the judge to declare the receipt they signed null and void because, in their opinion, sums are still owed to them by the first supplier. The couple replies and requests the removal of the legal mortgage.
The second supplier argues that the signed receipt "was at most a draft, hastily written and signed by a person (...), a credit and accounts receivable clerk, who did not have the required authority to sign such a receipt."
The court concludes that the couple should be considered in good faith as having "reasonably believed in the existence of a real power of representation." The agent of the second supplier had an apparent mandate and, therefore, had all the powers to sign the receipt. The court therefore orders the removal of the notice of legal mortgage of the construction and confirms the validity of the receipt, even though it is customary to require a builder's receipt to be accompanied by a resolution; now we can dare to claim that a little hastily written receipt is just as valid as one obtained in tranquility and comfort.
*500-09-017114-067 (C.A.)
