2(1)Every person who performs labour or services in connection with any logs or timber intended to be driven down rivers or streams or hauled directly from the woods or brought by railway to the place of destination, or partly in one way and partly in another, has a lien thereon for the amount due for such labour or services, whether payable as wages or by the piece, and the same has precedence over all other claims or liens thereon, except any lien or claim that the Crown, the Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fisheries Development Board or the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission has upon such logs or timber, for or in respect of any dues or charges, or otherwise, or that any owner of lands has for the stumpage upon such logs or timber, or that any streams improvement company or boom company, or person owning streams improvements or booms has thereon for or in respect of tolls.

2(2)Where such labour or services are performed under contract whereby it was agreed that the person performing the contract should be paid by the piece and the person performing the contract has employed others to assist him in the undertaking, not exceeding two in number, he has a lien as provided in subsection (1) for the total amount due him under his contract if he has paid in full the person or persons so assisting.

5(1)A statement under section 4, in the form prescribed by regulation, shall set out briefly

5(2)Where the claimant has performed the labour or services under contract providing for payment by the piece, the statement under section 4 shall set forth that all wages due by the claimant in connection with the undertaking have been paid.

6(1)Where the claim is in respect of

6(2)No sale or transfer of the logs, timber or lumber upon which a lien is claimed under this Act

11(1)A copy of the writ of attachment shall be served upon the defendant, and if the defendant therein named is not the owner of the logs, timber or lumber described in the writ, then a copy of the writ shall also be served upon the owner of the logs, timber or lumber, as the case may be, or upon the person or agent in whose possession, custody or control the same may be found.

11(2)A copy of the claim filed with the clerk as aforesaid shall be attached to the copy of the writ of attachment, and served with it.

11(3)When the defendant or owner of the logs, timber or lumber cannot be found within the judicial district and there is no one in possession of the logs, timber or lumber, a copy of the writ of attachment shall be forwarded to the sheriff for the judicial district where the defendant or owner, or either of them, resides or may be found and the copy may be served by the sheriff upon the defendant or owner of the logs, timber or lumber, as the case may be.

11(4)The owner may, on his own application or by direction of the judge, be made a party defendant at the hearing.

11(5)If the defendant or owner cannot be found within the Province, or the owner cannot be ascertained, and no agent or person is in possession for the owner, the writ of attachment may be served in such manner as the judge by order directs; but when the writ is served upon an agent or other person in possession as aforesaid, the order of the judge allowing the said service is necessary.

11(6)Where the service has not been personal upon either the defendant or owner, and where the proper defence has not been made, the judge may at any time before the close of the proceedings in his discretion admit them or either of them to make full defence, and may make such order in the premises as may be reasonable and just to all parties.

11(7)The sheriff is entitled, before making any service, to demand the payment of a sum sufficient to cover the amount of his necessary disbursements in making the service.

12(1)No sheriff shall, under the provisions of this Act, seize or detain any logs, timber or lumber in transit from the place where cut or sawn to the place of destination, except when they are being shipped or hauled by railway or otherwise to a destination outside the Province; but where the logs, timber or lumber are

12(2)The claimant or plaintiff in a suit and the sheriff are, when necessary, entitled under order of the judge to take any proceedings that the owner of any logs, timber or lumber may take for the purpose of procuring the separation of any logs, timber or lumber, so seized by the sheriff under this Act, from other logs, timber or lumber with which they have become intermixed, or a sale may be made without any such separation if the judge so directs.

13(1)The owner of the logs, timber or lumber, or any person on his behalf having a knowledge of the facts, may make and file with the clerk of the court out of which the attachment issued an affidavit stating what amount is due to persons entitled to a lien against the logs, timber or lumber in addition to the claim of the plaintiff, and the owner or person may thereupon execute and file with the clerk a good and sufficient bond to the sheriff, in the form prescribed by regulation, executed by himself and two sureties, to be approved by the clerk, and conditioned for the payment of all damages, costs, charges, disbursements and expenses that may be recovered by the claimant in such proceedings, together with the amount for which other lienholders stated in the affidavit may have a lien; and thereupon the clerk shall issue an order to the sheriff having in charge the logs, timber or lumber, directing the release of the same, and upon service of such order upon the sheriff he shall release the logs, timber or lumber.

13(2)Any lienholder entitled to the benefit of the said bond may obtain an order from the judge, entitling him to bring an action thereon in his name, and upon such order being made, that person may sue upon the bond; such bond shall be retained by the sheriff, subject to any order that the judge makes in respect thereof.

14(1)The defendant or owner may, at any time after service of the writ of attachment, and before the sale of the logs, timber or lumber, pay into a bank to be designated by the judge, the amount for which a lien is claimed in the suit, together with the additional amount specified in the affidavit mentioned in section 13, and likewise the amount for which a lien is claimed against the logs, timber or lumber in any other suit together with the costs of the proceedings thereon to the date of the payment, taxed by the clerk of the court, if so required.

14(2)The person making such payment is thereupon entitled to a certificate from the judge vacating the said liens, and upon the certificate being filed with the clerk of the court in which the original statement of claim was filed, the said lien is vacated, and all further proceedings thereon shall cease, and the person making the payment is further entitled to an order of the judge, directing the delivering up of the logs, timber or lumber seized under the attachment and also the cancellation of any bond given under section 13.

14(3)Where the amount has been paid into a bank under subsection (1), the judge may, on such notice as he thinks desirable or necessary to all parties interested either by advertisement in The Royal Gazette or otherwise, apportion the said amount among the various holders of liens against the logs, timber or lumber and may by order direct that such amount be paid out of the bank by cheque of the clerk of the court to the various parties entitled thereto.

15(1)After the said writ of attachment has been returned the judge shall, upon the application of the claimant, which application shall be made within ten days after the return unless the time is extended by the judge, issue an appointment naming a day upon which all persons claiming a lien on the logs, timber or lumber shall appear before the judge in person, or by their solicitor or agent, for the adjustment of their claims and the settlement of accounts.

15(2)The said appointment shall be served upon the defendant and upon the owner if the judge so directs, and shall also, if the judge so directs, be published once in The Royal Gazette before the day named in the appointment.

15(3)A copy of the appointment shall be mailed by registered letter to every holder of a claim known to the plaintiff as such holder, at least two weeks before the day named in the appointment, directed to the post office address of such claimant where the same is known, and if not known, then to his latest known address.

16(1)Upon the day named in the appointment, the person served with a copy thereof and any other person claiming a lien on the logs, timber or lumber who has prior to the said date filed with the clerk of the court a notice claiming a lien on the logs, timber or lumber and stating the nature and amount of his claim, shall attend before the judge who issued the appointment.

16(2)When claims are brought in pursuant to notice, they may be established prima facie by affidavit, but any party interested is at liberty to cross-examine the deponent, and may require that the claim be established by viva voce evidence.

19(1)In default of payment into a bank under section 18 within the time named in the order therefor, the logs, timber or lumber shall within twenty days thereafter, be sold by the sheriff holding the same, in the same manner as goods seized or taken under execution, unless the judge directs that additional publicity be given to the sale.

19(2)The amount realized by such sale shall, after deducting the expenses thereof payable to the sheriff, be paid into a bank to the credit of the cause, and shall upon the application of the several parties found to be entitled thereto under the order of the judge, be paid out to them by the clerk of the court by cheque drawn upon the bank to the orders of the parties entitled thereto.

19(3)Where the amount realized upon the sale is not sufficient to pay the claims in full and the costs, the judge shall apportion the amount realized pro rata among the different claimants.

19(4)If, after the sale and distribution of the proceeds thereof, any balance remains due to any person under the order of the judge, the judge shall, upon the application of such person, give to him a certificate that such amount remains due, which certificate may be entered as a judgment in The Court of King’s Bench of New Brunswick, against the person by whom the claim was directed to be paid, and execution may be issued thereupon as in the case of other judgments in the said Court.

20(1)Where nothing is found to be due upon the several claims filed as mentioned in section 16, or upon the lien or liens with respect to which proceedings have been taken, the judge may direct by order that the lien or liens be discharged, and the logs, timber or lumber be released or the security given therefor delivered up and cancelled, and shall also by such order direct payment forthwith of any costs that may be found due to the defendant or the owner of the logs, timber or lumber.

20(2)Such costs may be recovered by attachment.

22(1)Any person affected by proceedings taken under this Act may apply to the judge to dismiss the same for want of due prosecution, and the judge may make such order upon the application, as to costs or otherwise, as may be just.

22(2)The judge may at any stage of the proceedings, on application of any party, or as he may see fit, order that any person who may be deemed a necessary party to the proceedings, be added as a party thereto, or be served with a process or notice provided for by this Act, and the judge may make such order as to the costs of adding such person or as to such service as he deems proper.

26(1)When taxed costs, exclusive of necessary disbursements by the sheriff and clerk’s fees and necessary attendance money, according to the tariff set out in the Rules of Court, of the proceedings to enforce a lien under this Act that are payable out of the amount realized by the proceedings for the satisfaction of the lien exceed twenty-five per cent of the amount so realized, such costs upon application of any party to the proceedings interested in the payment thereof shall be reduced by the judge, so that the same do not in the aggregate exceed the said twenty-five per cent, and no more costs than such reduced amount shall be recovered between party and party, or solicitor and client.

26(2)The costs exclusive of sheriff’s fees, clerk’s fees, and necessary attendance money that may be taxed to any claimant proving a claim under this Act, shall not exceed twenty-five per cent of the amount of his claim.

26(3)Subject to the provisions of subsections (1) and (2) when not otherwise provided herein, the costs to be taxed to any party shall, as far as possible, be according to the tariff of fees in force as to other proceedings in The Court of King’s Bench of New Brunswick.

26(4)The following shall be allowed to the clerk in lieu of all other fees for services under this Act: