§52. Liens

1.  Form; effect.  Upon the failure of an employer to pay the amount assessed for unpaid wages or severance pay pursuant to chapters 7 and 15, the director may file in the registry of deeds of any county a certificate stating the name of the employer; the employer's address; the amount of unpaid wages or severance pay; and either that the time permitted for an appeal has expired without the appeal having been taken or that delay will jeopardize collection. When the certificate is duly filed and recorded, the amount of the assessment is a lien upon the entire interest of the employer, legal or equitable, in any real or tangible personal property situated within the jurisdiction of the office in which that certificate was filed. A lien obtained in this manner is a lien for unpaid wages or severance pay and the priority of the lien is governed by the laws of this State. The lien is subordinate to any real estate mortgage previously recorded as required by law. A lien for unpaid wages or severance pay is not valid against one who purchases personal property from the employer in the usual course of business, in good faith and without actual notice of the lien. The lien may be enforced against any real or personal property by a civil action in the name of the director. The director shall discharge any such lien upon receiving, from any employer against whose property a lien certificate has been filed, a good and sufficient bond with sureties conditioned upon the payment of the amount of unpaid wages or severance pay as finally determined together with any additional amount that may have become due or may have accrued under this chapter and costs of court, if any.

The remedies in this subsection are in addition to all other remedies.

[PL 1999, c. 28, §1 (NEW).]

2.  Filing lien.  Certificates of liens for unpaid wages or severance pay, or certificates discharging the liens prepared in accordance with this section, must be received, recorded and indexed by registrars of deeds in the same manner as similar instruments are recorded and indexed. The fee to be paid by the director for recording each certificate is the usual and customary fee, which need not be prepaid. This recording fee along with all other filing fees is the liability of the employer and must be assessed as part of the lien pursuant to subsection 1.

[PL 1999, c. 28, §1 (NEW).]

3.  Enforcement of lien.  After any assessment has become final and rights of appeal exhausted or lost by virtue of failure to exercise those rights, any property, real or personal, upon which a lien has been claimed under this chapter may be sold after due notice in conformity with the laws applicable to sales of real or personal property on executions issued in personal actions. In connection with such sales, the director has the same rights, privileges, duties and responsibilities as one in whose favor an execution is issued.

[PL 1999, c. 28, §1 (NEW).]

SECTION HISTORY

PL 1999, c. 28, §1 (NEW).