Cranston v. Beck
Cranston v. Beck
Opinion of the Court
This is an action of replevin to recover certain mirrors in a hotel known as the “Park House,” in Summit. The plaintiff claimed them as personal property, the defendant as owner of the real estate. Both the real estate and the mirrors at one time belonged to Lyons. Hicks was her tenant, hiring the personal property and renting the real estate. In 1898 Lyons conveyed the personal property, including the mirrors in question, to ITicks by a bill of sale. Subsequently Chesebrough bought the real estate and leased It to Hicks. At that time Hicks gave Chesebrough a chattel mortgage, conveying the mirrors and other personal property to Chesebrough to secure a loan. Hicks was then in possession of the hotel and the personal property as tenant under Chesebrough. After Chesebrough’s death, Hicks conveyed the personal property in the hotel to the present plaintiff by a bill of sale, which does not specifically mention the mirrors, but, after specifying a large amount of personal property, conveys all the other goods and chattels and other personal property of every kind contained in the building. The situation, then, was that Cranston, as executor, claimed title under the bill of sale to the mirrors as personal property. While he had this title he conveyed the real estate, <18 executor of Chesebrough, to the defendant. Nothing was said by either the plaintiff or the defendant, at the time of this conveyance, about the mirrors. The mirrors were of French plate glass, some of them resting on mantels supported at the top by iron spikes driven into the wall. The spikes were flattened at one end, and through a hole in this end screws were driven into the mirror frames to hold the mirrors. Some of the mirrors rested on slabs supported by brackets. All of them rested against the wall, and the frames were painted in the same style as the woodwork of the room in which the mirrors were. It is insisted, on the part of the defendant, that the evidence disclosed that the mirrors were part of the real estate, and that it was necessary for the plaintiff, in order to malee title to them, to prove title to
This subject has been recently very thoroughly discussed in the House of Lords, in the ease of Leigh v. Taylor, App. Cas. 157 (1902). This case involved the title to valuable tapestries. They were annexed to the house in the following way: Strips of wood were placed over the paper which covered the walls and were fastened by nails to the walls; canvas was stretched over the strips of wood and nailed to them, and the tapestries were stretched over the canvas and fastened by tacks to it and the pieces of wood. Mouldings, resting on the surface of the wall and fastened to it, were placed around each piece of tapestry. The Lord Chancellor, in the course of his opinion, said:
*149 “One principle, I tbink, has been established from the earliest period of the law down to the present time, namely, that if something has been made part of the house it must necessarily go to the heir because the house goes to the heir, and it is part of the house. That seems logical enough. Another principle appears to be equally clear, namely, that where it is something which, although it may be attached in some form or another to the walls of the house, .yet, having 'regard to the nature of the thing itself and the purpose of its being placed there, is not intended to form part of the realty, but is only a mode of enjoyment „of the thing while the person is temporarily there, and is there for the purpose of his or her enjoyment, then it is removable and goes to the executor.”
IVe think that mirrors are generally regarded, as they were in the present case, as a part, not of the house, but of the furniture of the house, and although mirrors may be so attached that it would be the necessary inference that they were intended to form part of the house, we think no such inference can properly be drawn from the facts of the present case.
We agree, therefore, with the conclusion reached by the District Court judge, that the mirrors were personal property, and the judgment should be affirmed, with costs.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- WILLIAM CRANSTON, OF NICHOLAS H. CHESEBROUGH v. THEODORE L. BECK
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published