N.M. Stat. § 48-2-12

This is the official text of N.M. Stat. § 48-2-12, part of New Mexico’s Stat — part of the compiled statutory law of New Mexico, published by the state as "Stat." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§ 48-2-12. Contractor liable for liens of subcontractors

Official statutory text

The contractor shall be entitled to recover upon a lien filed by the contractor only such amount as may be due to the contractor according to the terms of the contract, after deducting all claims of subcontractors under the contractor who have filed liens for work done and materials furnished, and during the pendency of the action, the owner may withhold from the contractor the amount of money for which the lien is filed unless the lien was asserted as a result of the owner's failure to pay the contractor for work done and materials furnished, and in case of judgment against the owner or the owner's property upon the lien, the owner shall be entitled to deduct from any amount due or to become due by the owner to the contractor the amount of the judgment. If the amount of the judgment exceeds the amount due by the owner to the contractor, or if the owner settles with the contractor in full, the owner shall be entitled to recover back from the contractor any amount paid by the owner, in excess of the contract price, and for which the contractor was originally the party liable.

Status: in_force

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.