Appeal of Faehnrich v. Bentz Metal Products Co. (In Re Bentz Metal Products Co.)

TERENCE T. EVANS, Circuit Judge.

Indiana law broadly protects the rights of workers (“mechanics and laborers employed in or about any shop, mill, ware-room, storeroom, ... bridge, reservoir, ... drainage ditch ... or any other earth-moving operation .... ” in the charming, though antiquated, language of the old Hoosier statute) against losing wages due when an employer encounters tough economic times. It does so by moving workers to the front of the company’s creditor queue with a mechanic’s lien that trumps the rights of other creditors to the company’s assets. Today we consider whether that…