In re Eureka Mower Co.

33 N.Y.S. 486, 86 Hun 309, 93 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 309, 67 N.Y. St. Rep. 200
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMay 4, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 33 N.Y.S. 486 (In re Eureka Mower Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Eureka Mower Co., 33 N.Y.S. 486, 86 Hun 309, 93 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 309, 67 N.Y. St. Rep. 200 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1895).

Opinion

MERWIN, J.

In February, 1893, the respondent, Simmons, was appointed receiver of the Eureka Mower Company, a domestic "corporation organized for the purpose of manufacturing and selling mowing machines and other agricultural tools. At this time the company was in possession of about seven acres of land, on which were located brick buildings built by the company in which to con[487]*487duct its business; and it had there manufactured mowing machines, and also spring-tooth harrows and cultivators. The receiver, after his appointment, continued, to some extent, to carry on the business, for the purpose of closing up the affairs of the company. On the 6th September, 1893, by authority of the court, the receiver entered into a written contract with Edwin H. Bisley; leasing to him for one year the real estate and certain machinery, and giving him the right to purchase the same on certain terms, provided he gave notice in writing on or before July 1, 1894, of his desire and determination to do so. This option of purchase was in due time accepted by the Standard Harrow Company, the assignee of Bisley, and for whose benefit, apparently, Mr. Bisley acted in the transaction. In carrying out this contract, a controversy arose as to whether certain articles on the premises were real estate, and so passed under the contract, or whether they were personal property, and not included in the contract of sale. Thereupon the parties agreed upon a statement of the facts, and the receiver, upon notice, applied to the court for instructions and for a determination of the questions involved; each party stipulating to abide by the decision of the court, without prejudice to the right of appeal. After hearing both parties, the order appealed from was made. In the contract of September 6, 1893, the property leased is described as follows:

“The manufacturing plant known as the ‘Eureka Mower Company’s Property,’ consisting of about seven (7) acres of land, on. which are erected an office building, foundry, machine shops, storehouse, lumber sheds, scales, and other appliances for conducting a manufacturing business, including only such machinery and -office furniture as is mentioned in a schedule hereunto attached, marked ‘A,’ with all the appurtenances, rights, privileges, and benefits, railroad tracks, water rights, and other privileges incident to said real estate.”

In giving the option of purchase, the property is described as “the property embraced in the lease.” In Schedule A, annexed to the contract, there was: First, under the head of “Office Furniture,” a list of such articles; then, under the head of “Machinery, &c.,-in Wood Shop,” a number of articles were specified, including “one grindstone, with iron frame,” several circular saws and tables, a planer, a lathe, a section fan and its air pipes, work benches and iron vises on them, and “all countershafts and bolts used for driving all the foregoing machinery”; then, under the head of “Machinery and Tools in Blacksmith Shop,” several articles were named, among others, “one Merrill & Bros, drop hammer,” a spring hammer, all countershafts and bolts used for driving them, “one fan blower, with its countershaft, belting, and air pipes”; and lastly, under the head of “machinery, piping, shafting,” etc., there was entered “all piping, line shafting and line belting, boilers, engines, heaters, steam pumps, all tools and appliances in the engine and boiler rooms.” On the same day that this contract was made, the receiver took back from Bisley a lease for a year of “all that part of the Eureka Mower Company plant, in Utica, described as follows: The north one-half of the machine shop, and the rooms known as the milling, grinding, and chipping rooms, on th,e north front of said plant, the [488]*488foundry, sand house, and pattern house, the cupola house, core room, and the iron and coke sheds, the easterly lumber shed,”—and a certain portion of the office and furniture therein. On the 2d January, 1894, the receiver gave to Hart & Crouse a lease from January 1 to September 1, 1894, of “all that part of the Eureka Mower Company plant, in Utica, New York, which is described as follows: The entire foundry, the sand house, pattern house, core room, cupola house, coal and coke houses, the milling and grinding rooms, and all the machinery therein,”—excepting certain things not important here. Prior to June 23, 1894, Bdsley assigned to the Standard Harrow Company the contract and option of September 6, 1893, and that company also acquired of Hart & Crouse their lease for the months of July and August, 1894, and entered into possession thereunder. The articles in controversy are a cupola, a blower, seven tumbling barrels, two grindstones, a power press, a drop hammer, two pattern maker’s work benches (one having an iron vise, and the other a wooden vise), and a quantity of hose and couplings. It is not claimed that any of these articles are mentioned in Schedule A, attached to the contract of September 6,1893. That contract, by its terms, included “only such machinery” as was mentioned in the schedule. So that if the articles in question are to be deemed machinery, within the contemplation of the parties, they did not pass. The appellant claims they were so attached or used that they formed part of the realty, and were not affected by the provision in the contract as to machinery.

Ordinarily, in determining whether a certain article is a fixture and a part of the realty, the purpose of the annexation and the intent with which it was made are the most important considerations. McRea v. Bank, 66 N. Y. 489. The intent is sometimes presumed (Tifft v. Horton, 53 N. Y. 382; Ewell, Fixt. 43), or it may be inferred from circumstances (McRea v. Bank, supra; Voorhees v. McGinnis, 48 N. Y. 278). So that in the present case, although the intent with which the annexations were made is not specifically stated in the facts agreed upon, still the object and purpose of the annexation appear, and the surrounding circumstances; and these facts are to be considered in ascertaining the intent of the annexation, so far as it may be material. When, however, there is an agreement on the subject between the parties, then the intent of the parties is to be given effect, and the question becomes one of interpretation and construction, determinable by the general rules applicable to such cases. Ewell, Fixt. 307. In such cases the conduct of the parties is material, and if the language of the contract is indefinite or ambiguous the practical interpretation of it by both parties is a consideration of importance. Woolsey v. Funke, 121 N. Y. 92, 24 N. E. 191. It is conceded that the most, if not all, of the articles in controversy were placed in the buildings by the Eureka Company for its use in its manufacturing business. It is also quite apparent that many articles so placed were by all parties, without question, considered personal property. Of the articles in question, the cupola, the blower, and the tumbling barrels were used in connection with the foundry. The cupola was in .the foundry building, and was used [489]*489for melting iron to be used in making castings. It rested on a concrete foundation let into the ground, and extended upward through the floor and through the roof, and was covered with iron. It consisted of an iron shell about 56 inches in diameter, lined in the inside with Are brick, and was supported in its vertical position by iron stops bolted to the floor and to the roof. The structure seems to have been called the “Cupola House” in the sublease to the receiver. The blower in question was used in connection with the cupola, and was necessary to its operation.

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Bluebook (online)
33 N.Y.S. 486, 86 Hun 309, 93 N.Y. Sup. Ct. 309, 67 N.Y. St. Rep. 200, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-eureka-mower-co-nysupct-1895.