Conde v. Sweeney

116 P. 319, 16 Cal. App. 157, 1911 Cal. App. LEXIS 161
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 5, 1911
DocketCiv. No. 772.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 116 P. 319 (Conde v. Sweeney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Conde v. Sweeney, 116 P. 319, 16 Cal. App. 157, 1911 Cal. App. LEXIS 161 (Cal. Ct. App. 1911).

Opinion

BURNETT, J.

There have been two appeals in this case— the first, from an order “granting plaintiffs an injunction *159 pendente lite as prayed for in the complaint,” and the present appeal from the judgment awarding a permanent injunction and from the order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.

In the decision on the former appeal (14 Cal. App. 20, [110 Pac. 973]) may be found a full statement of the facts, and it is deemed unnecessary to repeat them here. On said appeal, it may be said, also, two questions discussed herein by appellant were decided adversely to his contention, and as to them the decision must now be considered the law of the ease. They involve the action of the court in allowing the supplemental complaint to be filed and the sufficiency of the complaint in its statement of a cause of action. The only vital point to be determined on this appeal relates to the support for the findings furnished by the evidence. It may be stated that the cause was submitted upon the evidence taken at the hearing for a preliminary injunction, but that evidence was not brought up on the former appeal.

Plaintiff James E. Conde testified that the machinery described in the complaint was placed upon the mine after he and his wife had entered into the contract for the sale of said land; that the electric motors were bolted to a concrete foundation which was placed in the earth, except the one in the blacksmith-shop, and that was bolted to a wood foundation; that the lighting transformer was on a pole which was fixed in the ground, and that the electric pump was also bolted down in the mine; that all the machinery was used in working and developing the Dreisam mines. It furthermore appears that the agreements as to the sale of the mine were silent as to the disposition of the machinery that might be placed thereon. There was no agreement nor understanding that any of said machinery might be removed. It necessarily results from the foregoing that the machinery became fixtures and a part of the real property. “A thing is deemed to be affixed to land when it is attached to it by roots, as in the case of trees, vines or shrubs; or imbedded in it, as in the case of walls; or permanently resting upon it, as in the case of buildings; or permanently attached to what is thus permanent, as by means of cement, plaster, nails, bolts, or screws.” (Civ. Code, sec. 660.)

*160 “ Sluice-boxes . . . and all other machinery or tools used in working or developing a mine, are to be deemed affixed to the mine.” (Civ. Code, sec. 661.)

Being fixtures, of course, they are included in the ownership of the real property.

“When a person affixes his property to the land of another, without an agreement permitting him to remove it, the thing affixed, except as provided in section ten hundred and nineteen, belongs to the owner of the land, unless he chooses to require the former to remove it.” (Civ. Code, sec. 1013.) The exception provided by section 1019 has no application here. It relates to certain fixtures, which have not become “an integral part of the premises,” that a tenant may remove. In the case at bar there was no relation of landlord and tenant at any time.

As to these propositions, the situation before us is covered by the decision of the supreme court in Pomeroy v. Bell, 118 Cal. 635, [50 Pac. 683]. Therein it is said: “The court finds that all of the property placed upon the land by the defendant Bell was permanently attached and affixed to the land, and that it was so affixed by him without any agreement with the plaintiffs, or either of them, permitting him to remove any portion of the same. The property thus became a part of the land (Civ. Code, secs. 658-661), and under the provisions of section 1013 of the Civil Code belonged to the plaintiff. ’ ’

It is not controverted here that at the time of the trial the land was the property of plaintiffs, as the defendant had utterly failed to comply with the terms of the executory contract for its purchase. The fixtures, also, therefore belonged to plaintiffs.

It is manifestly beside the question that the fixtures were placed upon the land by the Parlin Mining Company instead of by the Parlin Gold Mining Company. With the latter the plaintiffs entered into the contract for the sale of the land, and the said company executed a similar contract with the Parlin Mining Company for the purchase of the property without any agreement as to the fixtures, and under that contract the Parlin Mining Company entered into possession and placed said machinery. The latter company would, of course, *161 have no greater right to the fixtures than would the original vendee had it made the improvements.

As the machinery belonged to plaintiffs, no one would contend that at the time of the trial, November 2, 1909, it could be taken under an attachment issued against the Parlin Mining Company, but it is claimed that the situation was different when the writ of attachment was actually levied, on the twenty-ninth day of August, 1909, as the contract for the purchase of said mine did not expire till three days later.

It is clear, however, that the attaching creditor could have no greater right than the Parlin Mining Company. The latter could not remove the machinery as it had become a part of the realty, and the title of the company to the realty was simply a conditional, defeasible one that was actually defeated and terminated by the default in the payment of the purchase price. This very question was decided in the Pomeroy case, supra,, wherein it was held that the entry of the vendee “is by reason of the estate in the land which he claims in himself, and the improvements which he makes thereon are made in contemplation of his becoming the owner, and if permanently affixed to the land, become a part of the realty as fully as if he were the absolute owner. Such improvements belong to the vendor in ease the vendee subsequently declines to comply with his contract of purchase, and the vendee has no right to remove them from the land. ’ ’ In that case the vendee attempted to remove them prior to the expiration of the time within which the purchase was to be completed, and here the attaching creditor of the vendee was attempting a similar removal.

Viewing the matter in a little different light, it is plain, since the machinery was a part of the land, that the levy of the attachment, if it could affect anything, would reach only the interest of the Parlin Mining Company in the realty, and that was simply the right of possession of the mines and to prospect and develop them. (Conde v. Sweeny, 14 Cal. App. 20, [110 Pac. 973] ; Pomeroy v. Bell, supra.) But since this right ceased on the first day of September, there would be no interest upon which the attachment could operate thereafter.

But the whole case of appellant rests upon the assumption that the machinery was personal property and belonged to *162 the Parlin Mining Company at the time the levy was made.

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Bluebook (online)
116 P. 319, 16 Cal. App. 157, 1911 Cal. App. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/conde-v-sweeney-calctapp-1911.