Randolph Marketing Co. v. Stevenson

This action is in claim and delivery and is for the recovery of certain packing-house equipment installed by the predecessor in interest of the plaintiff in the packing-house of defendant, situated at Woodlake, Tulare County, designated and known as the “Rose Street Packing House. ’ ’

The various articles constituting the equipment referred to, according to the complaint and the findings, were: One double-stand grader, together with the partition boards, bins, sprocket wheels, and other attachments; one thirty-inch Miller elevator, five-foot delivery tables; one two-way stem and brushes and floor hopper, shafting and pulleys; one convey press, plain top, two men, with strapping attachment; two No. 18-5-4 Center hanger clamp trucks; one No. 18-4-4 Center spring clamp truck; fifteen plain-top packing stands.

The complaint alleges that, on or about the first day of August, 1919, and a long time prior thereto, the plaintiff was and now is the owner, and entitled to the possession, of said personal property, the same being a complete packinghouse equipment, etc.; that said property is of the value of $1,200; that, on or about the first day of August, 1919, without the consent of the plaintiff, and wrongfully, the defendant obtained possession of said property, and, claiming the right to the possession thereof, has refused and still refuses to deliver the same to the possession of the plaintiff; that, prior to the commencement of this action, to wit, on or about the first day of August, 1919, the plaintiff demanded of the defendant the possession of said personal property, but that the defendant refused and still refuses to comply with said demand; that plaintiff, by reason of the alleged wrongful detention of said property by the defendant, has been damaged in the sum of $1,500. The prayer is for a return of said property to the plaintiff or for the recovery of the sum of $1,200, the alleged value thereof, together with damages in the amount stated as the extent of the injury claimed.

“4. That about the month of September, 1914, the Randolph Fruit Company, a corporation, entered into an oral contract with the defendant, under and by the terms of which the said Randolph Fruit Company placed the said property described in the complaint into a packing-house owned by the defendant, situated near the town of Woodjlake, in said County of Tulare, and agreed to pay a rental therefor, and securely attached the said property to said real estate by means of bolts and nails.

“5. That thereafter the Randolph Fruit Company sold its interest in the said property to the Randolph Marketing Company. That there never was any agreement between plaintiff and defendant as to the payment of rent for the said packing-house, or as to the removal of said fixtures or machinery, being the property sued for herein; that said property was so attached as to become a part of the real property upon which said packing-house was situated, and thereupon became and was the property of the defendant.

“6. That neither the Randolph Marketing Company nor the Randolph Fruit Company ever paid any rent for the use of said packing-house.

“7. That about the month of April, 1917, the defendant gave notice to the agent of the plaintiff, that the said defendant would thereafter retain and hold as his own all the said property and the plaintiff did not after the giving of said notice take any steps to secure the possession of said property or make any claim therefor until the commencement of this action.”

Judgment was rendered accordingly and the plaintiff appeals therefrom. The contention is that the findings are not supported by the evidence.

Preliminarily to the statement of the facts of the transaction involved herein as shown by the evidence, it should be stated that, as the court found, the Randolph Fruit Company, by an instrument in writing or a bill of sale, through W. O. Randolph, as president, and J.

The defendant testified that he erected and completed the packing-house in question a short time before the month of September, 1914; that he owned another packing-house on his premises some distance from where the Rose Street packing-house was erected; that there was not enough fruit raised in the immediate neighborhood of the Rose Street packing-house to justify its equipment with the machinery necessary for operating it. The agreement between Randolph, acting for the plaintiff or its predecessor, and the defendant was entirely verbal, no written lease or contract having been executed between the parties; but it appears that at some time prior to the month of September, 1914, and prior to the time at which the equipment was installed, the defendant met W. 0. Randolph, the president of the plaintiff and a conversation ensued between the two regarding the operation of the packing-house by the predecessor of plaintiff. The defendant testified that he stated to Randolph that he was willing that his company should take possession of the packing-house, and install the necessary machinery therein and operate the same in consideration of annual rent equal to six per cent on the cost of the packing-house, plus the taxes and insurance, which, the defendant stated, would amount, approximately, to the sum of $330 per year; that he proposed to Randolph that he would accept either cash or any machinery which might be installed in the plant for the purpose of operating it as in payment of rent; that this was, in effect, agreed to by Randolph. At any rate, the plaintiff’s predecessor, after said proposition was made by the defendant to Randolph, installed the equipment in the packing-house; that thereupon the predecessor of plaintiff entered into the occupation of the building and operated the plant until the purported transfer by it of the equipment to the plaintiff, on the first day of March, 1916; that on or near the last-mentioned date the plaintiff entered into the possession of the packing-house and operated the plant until the

[1] The evidence, without conflict, shows that the machinery constituting the packing outfit, with the exception of a few movables, was attached to the building by means of bolts and nails. This machinery consisted of brushes, • shafting, pulleys, elevator, sprocket wheels, the motive power, etc. As to the trucks and other movables connected with the operation of the plant, the defendant’s witness, Webb, who was the foreman or overseer of the Rose Street plant while operated by plaintiff and its predecessor, testified that, after the plaintiff had ceased operating the packing-house, he had a conversation with the defendant in which the latter stated that, while he intended to retain the machinery attached to the building as in payment of rent for the use of the house, he claimed no interest in the “packing boxes and the trucks and other movable materials, including the shook, and would like to have it removed as quickly as possible,” etc.; that he (Webb) thereupon “loaded up all that stuff including the shook, paper, nails, trucks, stoves, and took the Marketing Company sign down,” shipping all said articles to Naranjo, where the plaintiff was interested in a packinghouse.

It should be added that there is no evidence of a specific agreement as to the term during which the lease should run, but from the testimony of the defendant that he proposed to the plaintiff’s predecessor through its president, Randolph, that the rental would be upon the basis of $330 per year and that the plaintiff entered into the occupation of the building upon that proposition, although not expressly assenting to it, the conclusion or a finding would be justifiable that the term vras for one year. Indeed, in the absence of any express agreement as to a determinate period during which the lease was to exist, the presump

As is to be understood from what has already been said, there was no agreement that the Randolph Fruit Company should or might remove the property affixed to the building except upon payment to the defendant of the rental in money. The transaction, therefore, is governed by section 1019 of the Civil Code. (Merritt v. Judd, 14 Cal. 60 ; Pomeroy v. Bell, 118 Cal. 635 [ 50 Pac. 683 ]; Conde v. Sweeney, 16 Cal. App. 157 [ 116 Pac. 319 ].) Said section 1019 reads as follows: “A tenant may remove from the demised premises, any time during the continuance of his' term, anything affixed thereto for purposes of trade, manufacture, ornament, 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.”

The situation, as it is presented by this record, is this: That the Randolph Fruit Company abandoned the premises and its right to the further possession thereof during the term of its lease, leaving the property in dispute still attached to the building, without paying or offering to pay the defendant the rental due in money. Under the terms of the agreement, therefore, the equipment, or so much thereof as was attached to the building by means of bolts, screws, and nails, thereupon became fixtures, and, consequently, the property of the defendant. Indeed, since the lease was from year to year, the tenancy of the Randolph Fruit Company was terminated on the expiration of the first year of its lease and by a renewal thereof at that time. With the termination of the lease at the end of the first year, the plaintiff not having paid the defendant the first year’s rental in money, the right to remove the fixtures also terminated. (Merritt v. Judd, 14 Cal. 60 ; Marks v. Ryan, 63 Cal. 107 ; Carlin v. Ritter, 68 Md. 488 [ 6 Am. St. Rep. 474 , 13 Atl. 370 ]; Watriss v. First Nat. Bank of Cambridge, 124 Mass. 578 [ 26 Am. Rep. 699 ]; Sanitary

The foregoing is decisive of the case against the appellant. The findings and the judgment, however, are erroneous in that thére are thereby awarded to the defendant, in addition to those articles belonging to the equipment which were attached to the building, a number of movable articles used in connection with the operation of the plant, to wit, several trucks and a number of tables. These

The judgment, in so far as it adjudges that part of the equipment which is attached to the building by means of nails and bolts to be fixtures and, therefore, the property of the defendant, is affirmed; and that part of the judgment which awards the defendant the movables mentioned is reversed.

Plummer J., and Pinch, P. J., concurred.