Springfield Foundry & Machine Co. v. Cole

31 S.W. 922, 130 Mo. 1, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 359
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 2, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 31 S.W. 922 (Springfield Foundry & Machine Co. v. Cole) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Springfield Foundry & Machine Co. v. Cole, 31 S.W. 922, 130 Mo. 1, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 359 (Mo. 1895).

Opinion

Q-antt, P. J.

This was an action commenced by the plaintiff to enforce a mechanic’s lien for $3,983.62 against Eugene M. Cole, as contractor, and the Davie Mining and Development Company as the owner of the land and a certain building and the machinery therein. The case is in this court on a certificate of judgment only and the abstract does not contain the mechanic’s lien or any portion of the record proper. It falls far short of the requirement of the statute, but as no point is made upon the averments in the petition pr the correctness of the items or the good faith of the account sued on we will possibly find enough to discover the theory of the trial court by connecting the statement with the certificate of judgment.

In November, 1892, Eugene M. Cole entered into a contract with the Davie Mining and Development Company of Aurora, a company which was then operating a mine on lands belonging to the Kentucky Mining Company, by which said Cole agreed to furnish said Davie Mining Company a steam clearing plant for the crushing, handling and cleaning of lead and zinc ore, the same to be erected on the property of said Davie Mining Company in Aurora, Missouri, for which said mining company agreed to pay him $6,000, said payment to be made from the net profits of the property; and the amount of the earnings of said company, after all liabilities were paid, were to be deposited in the Bank of Aurora, subject to Cole’s order, and, until paid for, the said machinery plant was to remain Cole’s property.

For the purpose of erecting said mining plant, Cole bought of the plaintiff certain machinery and borrowed of the Aurora State Bank $1,-350 and completed the plant. He gave the bank a chattel-mortgage for the $1,350 on the machinery. It seems that the Aurora [5]*5Hardware Company attached a portion of the machinery covered by the chattel mortgage and thereupon the bank replevied the machinery and advertised it for sale, but prior to the sale this suit to enforce a mechanic’s lien was commenced and a temporary injunction granted restraining the sale.

The petition proceeded on the theory that the machinery had become a part of the freehold. The answer of Cole and the Davie Mining Company is a general denial. The bank set up its mortgage, alleged that.it loaned the money with the understanding the machinery was all paid for and that the money was loaned to Cole and used by him in erecting the machinery ; averred the plant was on leased property and the lessee had the right to remove it at any time when no rent was due. It further averred that the property was personal property and no mechanic’s lien could attach thereto and said machinery had never become a part of said building. The reply was a general denial of the answer.

The Kentucky Mining Company owned the land upon which the house and machinery were standing. Neither Cole, who purchased the machinery of plaintiff, nor the Davie Mining and Development Company had any estate in said land, nor even a leasehold. The Davie Mining Company and Cole were there simply by the consent of the owner mining for zinc and lead subject to the printed statement of the terms, conditions and requirements imposed by the owner. R. S. 1889, sec. 7034.

Among other rules provided and published by the owner was one requiring every person desiring to mine said land to register his name in the office of the superintendent of the owner. Another rule forbade subleasing, or renting any mining lot, and notifying all parties that no transfer of lease, lots, or mining [6]*6claims or rights would be recognized by the company, unless the parties acquiring such lots, leases, claims, or rights had received permission from the owner to mine such lot or claim. The deed from S. C. Johnson, R. L. McElhany and others conveyed no title or interest in the land, as they had none. The Davie Mining and Development Company simply had a miner’s license. Chynowitch v. Granby Mining, etc., Co., 74 Mo. 173; Boone v. Stover, 66 Mo. 430.

This right was long ago defined by Chief Justice Abbott, in Doe dem. Hanley v. Wood, 2 B. & Ald. 736, in these words: ‘‘Instead therefore of parting with, or granting, or demising all the several ores, metals, or minerals, that were then existing within the land, its words [the deed granting the mining license] import a grant of such parts thereof only as should, upon the license and power given to search and get, be found within the described limits, which is nothing more than the grant of a license to search and get (irrevocable, indeed, on account of its carrying an interest), with a grant of such of the ore only as should be found and got, the grantor parting with no estate or interest in the rest. If so, the grantee had no estate or property in the land itself, or any particular portion thereof, or in any part of the ore, metals or minerals, ungot therein ; but he had a right of property only, as to such part thereof as upon the liberties granted to him should be dug and got. That is no more than a mere right to a personal chattel, when obtained in pursuance of incorporeal privileges granted for the purpose of obtaining it, being very different from a grant or demise of the mines, or metals, or minerals, in the land; and is such a right only as, under the circumstances stated in this case, is not sufficient to support the present action of ejectment.”

This court approved and followed that case in [7]*7Boone v. Stover, supra, Judge Napton saying: “By a lease, the lessee obtains an estate in possession of the land and its products, in respect to which he can maintain ejectment; but, in a license or grant of an incorporeal hereditament the grantor does not divest himself of the possession, and the liberty of working a mine or mines on it is not inconsistent with the retention of possession by the grantor.”

In this case the miner simply had a privilege or license to mine (not by deed or grant) so long as he complied with the printed rules. The nature and character of this right is essential to a correct understanding of the respective rights of these parties when we come to consider the right to enforce a mechanic’s lien upon the mining machinery used by Cole or the Davie Mining Company.

That the owner of the land acquired no title or right to the mining machinery merely because it is placed upon and used in mining his realty, is too plain for discussion and no such claim is asserted here. It is not a fixture within the definition of that word as now understood. The relation of the owner of the o mining machinery to the owner of the real estate fixes its status. It comes clearly within the principle of a trade or manufacturing fixture, and the owner of the land acquires no title thereto. Richardson v. Koch, 81 Mo. 264. It was plainly not affixed to the land for the better enjoyment of the. land itself but it was put there for the exclusive purpose of carrying on the mining operations. Conrad v. Saginaw Mining Co., 54 Mich. 249; Ibid. v. Ibid., 52 Am. Rep. 817; Cooper v. Johnson, 143 Mass. 108.

The machinery, then, being a mere manufacturing fixture removable at the pleasure of the Davie Mining Company or Cole, did it, by being placed in the building erected there, become a part of the' land so [8]*8that a mechanic’s lien could attach to it? A satis-, factory answer solves this case.

The St. Louis court of appeals in Buchannan v. Cole, 57 Mo. App.

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Bluebook (online)
31 S.W. 922, 130 Mo. 1, 1895 Mo. LEXIS 359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/springfield-foundry-machine-co-v-cole-mo-1895.