The party entitled to such annual compensation may maintain a civil action therefor against any person who owns or occupies said mill, or canal and mills supplied thereby, when the action is brought; and shall therein recover the whole sum due and unpaid, with costs; and shall have a lien for such compensation, from the time of the institution of the original complaint, on the mill and milldam, or on the canal and the mill supplied thereby, with the appurtenances and the land under and adjoining them and used therewith, for any sum due not more than 3 years before the commencement of the complaint.