Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 1).pdf/320

 the court to correct and reform said notice to make it conform to the intention of the parties thereto, and to order its execution and enforcement so reformed. (6) Plaintiff prays for costs, and for general an equitable relief in the premises."

To this complaint the defendants Anna G. and William E. Clayton interposed a demurrer upon the ground that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The district court overruled the demurrer, and from the order overruling the demurrer, the defendants, the Claytons, appeal to this court. The only question presented for our decision, is the question of the sufficiency of the complaint as against the appellants.

It appears by the complaint that seed grain was furnished by plaintiff to the defendant Bradley upon an oral understanding that it was to be sown upon the north half of section 32, township 147, range 51, in Traill county, and that Bradley did sow the grain on that tract, and that a crop was produced from the seed grain the same year. ‘The fact further appears by the complaint that plaintiff in due time filed an account, in writing, conforming to the requirements of § 5492, Comp. Laws, except that the same did not embrace a description of the land upon which the seed so furnished had been or was to be sown; but did contain a description of a wholly different tract upon which no part of the seed was sown or expected to be sown. The contention of appellants’ counsel is that the omission to describe the right land in the “account in writing” is fatal to the lien. In this counsel is entirely correct. No requirement of the statute under consideration is plainer, and certainly none is more important, than the provision of § 5492 requiring that the land on which the seed is sown or will be sown should be described in the instrument which is put on file. In construing the seed-lien statute, the fact must not be overlooked that the lien given is wholly statutory in its nature and origin. It was unknown at common law, and hence can neither be acquired nor enforced unless there hag been a substantial compliance with the act of the legislature from which the lien arises. Kelly v. Seely, 27 Minn. 385, 7 N. W. Rep. 821. Thelien may be obtained without the consent of the party to whom the seed