L & W SUPPLY CORPORATION D/B/A BUILDING SPECIALTIES VS
JOE DESILVA T/D/B/A DESILVA CONTRACTORS, ET AL.
A-2960-10T2
The Construction Lien Law, N.J.S.A. 2A:44A-1 to -38, and
Craft v. Stevenson Lumber Yard, Inc., 179 N.J. 56, 63 (2004),
impose an obligation upon a materials supplier that files a
construction lien to show that it applied payments correctly
against several open accounts of a contractor that purchased
materials for different building jobs. This opinion elaborates
upon that obligation and holds that, when the contractor has not
provided specific, reliable instructions as to the allocation of
its payment based on the source of the payment funds, or when a
reasonable supplier should suspect that the contractor has not
used an owner's funds to pay for materials supplied for that
owner, then the supplier must make further inquiry and attempt
to verify the source of the payment funds so that it can
allocate them to the correct accounts. 12-19-12
