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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T
SPONSOR Wirth
DATE TYPED 02/01/05 HB 147
SHORT TITLE Recovery of Attorney Fees in Lien Actions
SB
ANALYST Ford
APPROPRIATION
Appropriation Contained Estimated Additional Impact Recurring
or Non-Rec
Fund
Affected
FY05
FY06
FY05
FY06
NFI
(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
LFC Files
Responses Received From
Administrative Offices of the Courts (AOC)
Attorney General (AGO)
SUMMARY
Synopsis of Bill
House Bill 147 allows the award of attorney fees in a mechanics’ and materialmen’s lien to the
prevailing party, whether that party is the lienholder or the property owner. Under current law,
only the lienholder can receive attorney fees.
Significant Issues
The AGO provides an explanation of the background and need for House Bill 147:
“The New Mexico Supreme Court held in 1994 that homeowners are not entitled to attor-
ney's fees even if they prevail in mechanics liens enforcement actions. The Court stated
that section amended by this bill does not allow recovery of attorney's fees by homeown-
ers and was only meant to protect lien holders. Tabet Lumber Co. v. Romero, 117 N.M.
429, 872 P.2d 847 (1994). In that case, the homeowner was protected by the “Stop No-
tice Act”, having made final payment to their contractor who then failed to make pay-
ment to a subcontractor. The case against the homeowner to enforce the lien was dis-