Kalamazoo Stove Co. v. May

16 Ohio Law. Abs. 498, 1934 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1389
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 22, 1934
DocketNo 340
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 16 Ohio Law. Abs. 498 (Kalamazoo Stove Co. v. May) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kalamazoo Stove Co. v. May, 16 Ohio Law. Abs. 498, 1934 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1389 (Ohio Ct. App. 1934).

Opinions

[500]*500OPINION

By GUERNSEY, J.

There are a number of assignments of error in the petition in error, but the only ones pointed out in the brief of plaintiff in error, and which under the statute and rules of practice of this court will be the only ones considered, are:

1. Error in the amount of recovery, the same being too large, as appears from the record.

2. The verdict is not sustained by sufficient evidence and is contrary to law.

3. The court erred in refusing to charge the jury either one or more of the three special instructions before argument of counsel, as requested by the defendant, the defendant having then and there excepted to the refusal to so charge.

4. The court erred in its charge to the jury.

The undisputed facts, as shown by the bill of exceptions, are: Plaintiff has been the owner of the real estate described in the petition, for many years and that the dwelling house on said premises for a number of years prior to the installation therein of a furnace by the defendant as hereinafter mentioned, was provided and equipped with a pipeless furnace for heating purposes.

On October 8, 1930, plaintiff leased this property to the Fenstermakers, by written lease, said lease containing a provision that the Fenstermakers had the option to purchase the same for the sum of five thousand dollars, and also containing the provision referred to in the answer of the defendant. The option of purchase was never exercised and the Fenstermakers never paid anything more than rent.

On the 17th day of October, 1930, Mrs. Fenstermaker entered into a contract with the defendant without the knowledge or consent of the plaintiff, by the terms of which plaintiff was to remove the furnace in the house and install a new Kalamazoo furnace, which contract was immediately performed by the defendant through its agents and servants.

That the pipeless furnace which was removed from plaintiff’s premises by the defendant, was installed in the ordinary manner that pipeless furnaces are installed; and that the defendant removed this furnace and sold it and installed a new Kalamazoo furnace in place of it; that incident to such new installation, the defendant installed various pipes throughout the dwelling house connecting the furnace with the registers which it installed in various rooms in the house for the purpose of distributing the heat from the furnace, and that in doing this work it was necessary to cut holes in the flooring in the various rooms in the house; that the furnace proper was set up on a casting in the basement and was then connected with the various pipes through which the heat was carried to the various rooms of the house.

The Fenstermakers moved out of the house and abandoned their contract, November 20, 1931, without paying anything on the furnace.

The plaintiff reentered the property and [501]*501through her tenants used the furnace installed by the defendant, until September 15, 1932, when the defendant, without any notice to the plaintiff and without her knowledge or consent, entered said property and removed the furnace, and that the house had been without a heating plant from the date of said removal until the date of trial.

In removing the furnace, the plaintiff disconnected the pipes from the furnace proper, used for the conduct of heat from the furnace, and took out the furnace but did not remove the piping that had been installed.

The plaintiff had no notice from the defendant that it had placed a furnace in the property, and no notice that it was taking it out, and the old furnace was never accounted for to plaintiff.

The Fenstermakers and the defendant-entered into an agreement for the installation of said furnace by defendant in said premises, as alleged in the answer, in which a reservation of the title to the furnace was made by the defendant until the purchase price thereof was paid. That neither said agreement nor a copy thereof, was filed as a conditional sale contract, in the office of the recorder of Hancock County.

Witnesses for the plaintiff testified that on account of the removal of the furnace, the premises of plaintiff were of a value from two hundred dollars to three hundred dollars less after the removal of the furnace than they were before the removal thereof. One of defendant’s witnesses testified that it would cost one hundred and thirty five dollars to replace the furnace parts removed.

There was evidence offered by plaintiff tending to prove loss of rentals and depreciation in rentals caused by the removal of such furnace.

The defendant contends that by reason of the fact that it reserved title to the furnace in its contract with Fenstermakers, it had the right as against the plaintiff, who was the owner of the premises, to remove such furnace as personal property upon the default of the Fenstermakers in making payments; and that even though the contract was not recorded as a conditional sale contract as provided in §8568, GO, the reservation of the title was good as against the plaintiff because plaintiff was not a subsequent purchaser or mortgagee in good faith and for value, and was not a creditor. Or, in other words, plaintiff being the owner of the property, was -not in any of the classes against whom such reservation is void for failure to deposit such contract- or a true copy thereof with proper oath, in the office of the county recorder.

This contention of the defendant might be sound if the character of the property covered by its contract had not been changed from personal to real property subsequent to the execution of the contract.

In this case, the furnace covered by the contract was substituted for the furnace already on the property which was a fixture on the property, and the property substitute ed being substituted for a fixture, the defendant is estopped from denying that it is a fixture; and even if this rule did not apply, the furnace and equipment covered by the conti’act became fixtures by annexation to the realty.

Three general tests have been formulated and developed to be applied in determining the status of-any chattel affixed to realty in any particular case. These tests, which have been accepted by all courts and text writers, are as follows:

1. Actual annexation to realty, or to something appurtenant thereto.

2. Adaptation to the use or purpose of that part of the realty with which it is connected.

3. The intention of the party making the annexation, to make a permanent accession to the freehold.

19 Ohio Jurisprudence, 89.

Teaff v Hewitt, 1 Oh St 511.

The intention in making the annexation does not mean the secret intention, but rather the purely legal intention to be deduced from the various external facts.

19 Ohio Jurisprudence, page 91.

In regard to the respective rights of a landlord and the chattel mortgagee of personalty placed by the tenant on the realty of the landlord, where the article, from the nature and method of annexation, would be regarded as a fixture, or where its removal would cause damage to the realty, the landlord’s right would be superior to that of the chattel mortgagee.

19 Ohioi Jurisprudence, 108.

Applying these tests to the furnace.

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Related

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
16 Ohio Law. Abs. 498, 1934 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kalamazoo-stove-co-v-may-ohioctapp-1934.