West Coast Lumber Co. v. Apfield

24 P. 993, 86 Cal. 335
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 7, 1890
DocketNo. 13788
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 24 P. 993 (West Coast Lumber Co. v. Apfield) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
West Coast Lumber Co. v. Apfield, 24 P. 993, 86 Cal. 335 (Cal. 1890).

Opinion

Fox, J.

1. Appellant is the owner in fee of lot L, block 784, New San Diego. He leased the same for the term of five years to the defendant Apfield, who took one Newkirk into partnership with him, and they proceeded to erect a four-story building upon the lot, upon which divers liens were filed for labor and materials, upon which suits were brought, four of which suits were consolidated and tried together, resulting in judgments in favor of the claimants, from which judgments the defendant Low appeals, also from an order denying his motion for new trial. The lease contains the following provision: “No buildings or improvements shall be removed until the taxes shall be fully paid, and until all rents and indebtedness have been paid. And at the expiration of said term the said party of the second part will quit and surrender the said premises in as good state and condition as reasonable use and wear thereof will permit (damage by the elements alone excepted).” The demised premises are described as being “ all that real property,” etc., “ with the appurtenances,” etc.

There is no clause in the lease either reserving or granting to the lessee the right to remove any buildings [338]*338or improvements which have been or may be erected upon the premises. But, from the first sentence of the clause above quoted, the appellant argues that the building erected by the lessee upon said lot is not an improvement to or upon the same, and that laborers and material-men who furnish labor and material therefor cannot, by reason thereof, acquire a lien upon his interest (the fee) in said land, the lease being a matter of public record in the office of the county recorder. To this the respondent makes the pertinent suggestion that it is this very improvement to his realty that enables him to realize one hundred dollars per month rent therefor, for the term of the lease,—an amount which it could not command if the lot remained vacant. But assuming that the inference which appellant draws — that the building is subject to removal at the expiration of the lease — be true in fact, he is still protected by the terms of his lease, for it cannot be removed until all taxes, rents, and debts are paid. If, therefore, in order to protect his realty, he has to pay off these liens, the building, even under his theory of the case, cannot be removed until the money is repaid. But there is more than this of this lease. By its terms, he has demised all that there is of the “ real property,” with its appurtenances. That includes not only the land, but everything that is affixed, incidental, or appurtenant to the land. (Civ. Code, sec. 658.) That which is affixed includes that which is “imbedded into it, as in the case of walls, or permanently resting upon it, as in the case of buildings.” (Civ. Code, sec. 660.) And that is deemed incidental or appurtenant to land which is by right used with the land for its benefit. (Civ. Code, sec. 662.) It is apparent that it was the erection of this building which gave to the otherwise vacant lot a rental value of more than a nominal amount. It was a large and substantial structure, not only apparently “permanently resting upon” the lot, but the proof shows that it was resting upon mud-sills “ im[339]*339bedded in it,” and also that, when completed, it was “ used with the land.” To all appearance, the lot and building was a single entity of real property.”

Again, as we have before said, there was neither a reservation of right nor a grant of right to remove any buildings; but, on the contrary, there was an express covenant to surrender, at the expiration of the term, “in as good state and condition as reasonable use and wear thereof will permit, damage by the elements alone excepted.” This at least was an express provision negativing the right to remove. “A tenant for years or at will has no other rights to the property than such as are given to him by the agreement or instrument by which his tenancy is acquired, or by the last section.” (Civ. Code, sec, 820.) The preceding section, being the one referred to as “the last section,” gives him the right to “occupy the buildings, take the annual products of the soil, work mines and quarries open at the commencement of his tenancy.” Nowhere does the code give the right to remove buildings, unless that right is expressly granted or reserved in the instrument creating the tenancy, or the buildings are such, or so erected, as not to partake of the realty. “ When a person affixes his property to the land of another, without an agreement permitting him to remove it, the thing affixed, except as provided in section 1019, belongs to the owner of the land, unless be chooses to require the former to remove it.” (Civ. Code, sec. 1013.) “ A tenant may remove from the demised premises, any time during the continuance of his term, anything affixed thereto for purposes of trade, manufacture, or domestic use, if the removal can be effected without injury to the premises, unless the thing has, by the manner in which it is affixed, become an integral part of the premises.” (Civ. Code, sec. 1019.) This would hardly authorize the removal of a four-story building erected to be used for stores and as a lodging and boarding house. It may [340]*340be that the parties have not expressed in this lease what they had agreed upon beforehand, and understood and intended at the time, but, having reduced the same to writing, and executed the same, it supersedes all oral negotiations or stipulations concerning the subject-matter which preceded or accompanied the execution of the instrument. (Civ. Code, sec. 1625.) If by mistake the parties have failed to express the intention in the making of the instrument, the appellant, upon proper showing of the fact, may have it revised and reformed; but that he has not sought to do here, and he could not have it so done as to prejudice the rights of third persons, acquired in good faith and for value. (Civ. Code, sec. 3399.) Here, with the record showing that he was the owner in fee, with nothing to show or to put third parties upon notice that buildings erected thereon would not inure to his benefit, and become a part of the realty, with actual knowledge of the construction of the building, and without giving any notice, under section 1192 of the Code of Civil Procedure, that he would not be responsible for the same, the appellant has stood by and seen his tenants erect a large and costly building upon his lot. He cannot now be heard to say that the men who performed labor upon and furnished material for such building have no lien upon his lot therefor, because the building has not become a part of the realty, and is not an improvement upon his property. Possibly he would have been entitled to have the decree foreclosing the lien so framed as to have the leasehold interest of the tenant first sold and his fee held liable only for deficiency, if there was any, but he asked for no such relief in the court below, and it is too late now to assign the failure to grant that relief as error upon which to reverse the judgment.

2. Appellant claims that it was error to exclude the evidence of the defendant Apfield as to his intention in reference to a future removal of the building. While [341]

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Bluebook (online)
24 P. 993, 86 Cal. 335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-coast-lumber-co-v-apfield-cal-1890.