Diamond v. Butler

17 Pa. D. & C. 183, 1931 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 314
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Butler County
DecidedSeptember 7, 1931
DocketNo. 87
StatusPublished

This text of 17 Pa. D. & C. 183 (Diamond v. Butler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Butler County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Diamond v. Butler, 17 Pa. D. & C. 183, 1931 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 314 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1931).

Opinion

Campbell, P. J.,

— The plaintiff entered into a bailment contract with Edward B. Butler for the loan or bailment for a stipulated period of one “Steelcote” garage, 10 feet by 18 feet by 8 feet, to be erected on locust posts on land of Butler, for which he agreed to pay the plaintiff $213.75 in equal monthly instalments, evidenced by negotiable notes, with provision that at the end of the bailment period the merchandise would be returned to plaintiff, and with a provision for the purchase of the merchandise either during the bailment or at its expiration upon full payment of the original con[184]*184sideration of $213.75. It contains the following provision: “It is expressly agreed that the right of property of said goods remains in the said The Diamond Hardware Mfg. Co. . . . It is further agreed that the merchandise is not to become a fixture on property where located, nor is to become liable for debts or other obligations.” The garage was duly erected on land of Butler and thereon was, on August 14,1930, replevied by the sheriff in due form for failure to pay rental. Prior to the date of the bailment contract, a mortgage was placed on the land on which the garage was located by Butler’s predecessor in title to secure the sum of $2000, evidenced by bonds of the then owner* On June 6,1930, subsequent to the erection of the garage, the land upon which it was erected was sold by the sheriff on a judgment confessed upon the bonds which accompanied the mortgage and was purchased by the defendant, Ruth P. Bastían, without notice of the plaintiff’s claim to the garage. The sheriff’s, deed was recorded June 12, 1930. On June 9, 1930, an agent of the plaintiff notified James E. Marshall, Esq., a member of the law firm of Marshall & Watson, including Mr. Marshall and Thomas W. Watson, Esq., “of the plaintiff’s title and ownership in and to the said garage and made demand for the return of the same.” On June 25, 1930, Ruth P. Bastían conveyed said land, with the structures thereon erected, to James E. Marshall and Thomas W. Watson.

We are unable to find any case in this state in which the question here involved has been directly raised. Under the common law, all articles attached to the freehold became a part of the freehold. Under our law, the general rule is that articles attached to the freehold become subject to the lien of an existing mortgage upon the land, and title thereto passes with the land under a sale upon the mortgage. Under the application of these general rules, the title to this garage would be vested in the defendants.

However, there are two general exceptions to these rules, the facts of which must be here examined: The first relating to the exception to the said common-law rule where the intent of the parties who attach the article to the freehold is that it shall not become a fixture on the land; and the second relating to sales under bailment contracts.

1. These exceptions relate generally to questions as between landlord and tenant and with relation to trade fixtures. The rule is that the common-law doctrine of physical annexation as the real test no longer applies and that “unquestionably the intention to annex ... is the true legal criterion:” Hill v. Sewald, 53 Pa. 271, 273. “The question of fixture or not depends on the nature and character of the act by which the structure is put in place, the policy of the law connected with its purpose, and the intentions of those concerned in the act:” Meigs’s Appeal, 62 Pa. 28; Hill v. Sewald, 53 Pa. 271; Wick v. Bredin, 189 Pa. 83. “The modem authorities give preeminence to the intention of the parties, as declared by them, or which flows from the nature and character of the act, the clear purpose to be served, the manifest relation which the article bears to the realty, and the visible consequences upon its severance upon the proper and obvious use of it: Bank v. North, 160 Pa. 303:” Silliman v. Whitmer & Sons, 11 Pa. Superior Ct. 243, 257.

In Bank v. North, supra, where the question was whether certain radiators, were fixtures and thus carried by a sheriff’s sale on a mortgage, or personal property and carried by a sale on a judgment execution, Judge Endlich, on page 308, states the rule to be that, “as to all articles not so intimately connected with the freehold as to become essentially a part of it, the intention,, not the mere physical fact of their connection with the realty, is the criterion, of annexation,” which intention is not that secret design of the party “but [185]*185that ‘intention’ which was either expressly declared by the parties competent to make it the governing rule or which flows, patent to all, from the nature and character of the act, the clear purpose to be served, the manifest relation which the articles bear to the realty and the visible consequences of their severance upon the proper and obvious use of it. . . . ‘It is an intention which settles not merely his own rights, but the rights of others who have or may acquire interests in the property. They cannot know his secret purpose, and their rights depend not upon that, but upon the inferences to be drawn from what is external and visible.’ ”

So, as between the plaintiff and Butler, the terms of the bailment contract that this garage was not to become a fixture would control. In this case, however, the rights of a mortgagee under a preexisting mortgage and of a purchaser for value at a sheriff’s sale thereon are involved.

Many of these cases deal with the rights of creditors and establish the rule that where the intention in annexing chattels to realty was not to make them a part of the freehold, they do not become subject to the lien of a prior mortgage. In Hill v. Sewald, supra, boilers of a steam mill hired on a monthly rental, on the repurchase of the land on a purchase-money morgtage executed prior to the installation of the boilers, the purchaser having been given notice of the plaintiff’s claim to the boilers, were decided not to be included in the lien of the mortgage, they not having been annexed to the freehold. Wickes Bros. v. Island Park Ass’n, 229 Pa. 400, involved engines and fixtures for the generation of electric light and power under a contract retaining title in the vendor until payment. These were installed on land subject to a mortgage to secure bonds, upon the sale of which it was purchased by the receiver for the bondholders, with notice of the vendor’s claim. The court states that a purchaser at a receiver’s sale, with notice, or a holder of bonds secured by a mortgage given before the machinery was sold, has no higher right than the park association, and the only question for decision was whether or not the machinery became part of the realty. Judgment for vendor of the machinery. Kinnear v. Scenic Rys. Co., 223 Pa. 390, involved the right to a scenic railway installed by the tenant of defendant. The plaintiff was a purchaser of the land under two mortgages, one preceding the erection of the railway and the other following, the purchaser holding the land for the second mortgagee. Held, that the railway was erected as a permanent improvement and judgment was for the plaintiff. Benedict v. Marsh, 127 Pa. 309, involved some machinery connected with a steam sawmill. The plaintiff was the purchaser of the land at sheriff’s sale on a judgment entered subsequent to placement of the machinery, and the defendant claimed through a bill of sale from the owner made subsequent to the entry of the judgment. The question involved was whether the machinery was personalty or realty. Verdict for the defendant.

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Bluebook (online)
17 Pa. D. & C. 183, 1931 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 314, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/diamond-v-butler-pactcomplbutler-1931.