Memphis Housing Authority v. Memphis Steam Laundry-Cleaners, Inc.

463 S.W.2d 677, 225 Tenn. 46, 1971 Tenn. LEXIS 273
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 18, 1971
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 463 S.W.2d 677 (Memphis Housing Authority v. Memphis Steam Laundry-Cleaners, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Memphis Housing Authority v. Memphis Steam Laundry-Cleaners, Inc., 463 S.W.2d 677, 225 Tenn. 46, 1971 Tenn. LEXIS 273 (Tenn. 1971).

Opinions

[48]*48Mr. Justice McCanless

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Memphis Housing Authority instituted a proceeding under the authority of Chapter 8 of Title 13, T.C.A., to condemn a tract of land on which is situated a large commercial laundry in the City of Memphis. The land, improvements, and personal property located thereon are used in the conduct of what is referred to in the record as the largest commercial laundry in the south, and owned and operated by Memphis Steam Laundry-Cleaner, Inc.

The Circuit Judge by agreement heard the case without the intervention of a jury and pronounced a judgment of $2,394,205.86 in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff, the housing authority, the judgment consisting of $970,000.00 for the land and buildings and $1,424,205.86 for moving costs which were included in the judgment as authorized by Sections 23-1414, 13-807 and 13-824, T.C.A. The housing authority perfected its appeal in the nature of a writ of error to the Court of Appeals which modified the judgment of the Circuit Court. In response to the laundry’s petition we have granted certiorari.

The petitioner, the laundry, has filed the following assignments of error:

[49]*49I. ‘ ‘ The Court of Appeals erred in holding- that some of Petitioner’s equipment, machinery and fixtures, such as telephone and public address systems, process piping, boilers and related gauges, pumps and machinery, pumps and other equipment forming a part of process piping, oil and water storage tanks, electric generator and steam engine, water treatment machinery, well pumps and related machinery, excess ventilating equipment, and process wiring were not movable and, hence, a part of the ‘real estate.’
“This ruling of the Court of Appeals, which reversed the final judgment of the Trial Court in this regard, is in direct conflict with the provisions-of sec. 23-1414, T.C.A. and the findings of fact of the Trial Court which are supported by the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence.
‘ ‘ The Court of Appeals thus erred in sustaining Respondent’s Assignments of Error One and Two raised below.
II. “The Court of Appeals erred in sustaining Respondent’s Assignment of Error Four raised below and, more particularly, erred in ordering Petitioner to pay rent to Respondent Avithout correspondingly ordering Respondent to pay interest to Petitioner.”

The housing authority has filed assignments of error by which it insists that (1) the Court of Appeals erred in ruling that payment for moving expenses be made without any requirement that such expenses shall have actually been incurred as a prerequisite for such payment; (2) that the Court of Appeals erred in requiring the payment of the judgment before the delivery of possession to the housing authority; and (3) that it was error for the Circuit Court to admit certain evidence.

[50]*50The Court of Appeals differed with the Circuit Court with regard to the treatment of items of equipment, particularly with regard to a large amount of process piping and process wiring, the Circuit Court holding that the removal cost should he assessed on the basis of all the laundry machinery and equipment which could be moved and which was functional as a part of the laundry operation, but excluding such items as were functional with respect to the building. The Court of Appeals was of opinion that certain of the items that the Circuit Court liad adjudged as removable fixtures were not removable; these items were the process wiring and the process piping, oil and water storage tanks, and the other items listed in the laundry’s first assignment of error, and the Court of Appeals disallowed the cost of removing and reinstalling such items.

Until 1951 there was no provision in the Tennessee ►Statutes for the cost of removal of personal property and fixtures in condemnation proceedings. (See: Lenzi v. Memphis Union Station Co., 3 Tenn. CCA 218 [1913]). In 1951 the General Assembly by Chapter 176 of the Public Acts of that year amended what then was Section 3122 of the Code and which is now Section 25-1414, T.C.A., by adding the following sentence:

“Where the removal of furniture, houshold belongings, fixtures, equipment, machinery, or stock in trade is made necessary by the taking, the reasonable expense of such removal shall be considered in assessing incidental damages.”

Tn 1957 the General Assembly by Chapter 398 of the Public Acts of that year added the third sentence of Section 23-1414:

[51]*51“The reasonable expense of the removal of such chattels shall be construed as including the cost of: any necessary disconnection, dismantling or disassembling, the loading, and dra.yage to another location not more than ten (10) miles distant, and the reassembling, reconnecting, and installing in such new location.”

Section 23-1402 makes all of Chapter 14 of Title 23 applicable to all eminent domain proceedings unless the contrary is expressly stated. Section 13-807, T.C.A., confers upon housing authorities the right to condemn property either under Title 23, Chapter 14 or under Title 23, Chapter 15, and the amendments to the Chapters, hut by Chapters 191 and 192 of the Public Acts of 1965 removal provisions applicable to housing authorities were enacted. There is no substantial difference between the wording of these amendments, which are identical with each other, and the wording of the removal provision of Section 23-1414, T.C.A.

The Sections of Tennessee Code Annotated which authorize the acquisition of real property by housing authorities make no provision for the condemnation of personal property, therefore housing authorities cannot acquire personal property by the process of eminent domain. The moving expense provisions, above quoted, apply both to personal property and to fixtures. The reference to “such chattels” in the amendment to Section 23-1414, T.C.A., which the General Assembly enacted as Chapter 398, Public Acts of 1957, was not intended to restrict the payment of moving costs to personalty. As the Section now stands the word “fixtures” must be given its usual meaning, and the words “such chattels” be construed as referring to items of personalty. In [52]*52Hickman v. Booth, 131 Tenn. 32, 173 S.W. 438, Mr. Justice Green said:

“In Tennessee only those chattels are fixtures which are so attached to the freehold that, from the intention of the parties and the uses to which they are put, they are presumed to be permanently annexed, or a removal thereof would cause serious injury to the freehold. Johnson v. Patterson, 13 Lea [81 Tenn.], 626; De Graffenreid v. Scruggs, 4 Humph. [23 Tenn.], 451, 40 Am.Dec. 658; Union Bank & Trust Co. v. [Fred W.] Wolfe, 114 Tenn. 255, 86 S.W. 310, 108 Am.St.Rep. 903, 4 Am.Cas. 1070. The usual test is said to be the intention with which a chattel is connected with realty. If it is intended to be removable at the pleasure of the owner, it is not a fixture. Johnson v. Patterson, 13 Lea [81 Tenn.], 626; Cannon v. Hare, 1 Tenn.Ch., [22] 23.”

Chancellor Cooper in Cannon v. Hare, 1 Tenn.Ch. 22, which he decided in 1872, said:

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Memphis Housing Authority v. Memphis Steam Laundry-Cleaners, Inc.
463 S.W.2d 677 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1971)

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Bluebook (online)
463 S.W.2d 677, 225 Tenn. 46, 1971 Tenn. LEXIS 273, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/memphis-housing-authority-v-memphis-steam-laundry-cleaners-inc-tenn-1971.