Hello epoch1,

I do not know match about DBIx::Class but a possible solution to your problem could be DBIx::Class::Manual::Joining.

From the manual "USING JOINS":

  $schema->resultset('CD')->search(
    { 'Title' => 'Funky CD',
      'tracks.Name' => { like => 'T%' }
    },
    { join      => 'tracks',
      order_by  => ['tracks.id'],
    }
  );
[download]

Take a look, it might be what you are looking for.

Update: another similar question/solution with join (Can I join the column names with search_related in DBIx?).

Hope this helps.