Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

37 Minn. 459

Erickson v. Jones

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Decided November 25, 1887

Supreme Court of Minnesota · decided 1887-11-25

Plaintiff brought this action in the municipal court of Minneapolis, to recover the value of personal property, including a building, alleged to have been unlawfully converted by the defendant.

Relies on Loughran v. . Ross · Ombony v. . Jones

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1887-11-25

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently April 1978

4 state decisions

101887189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Vanderburgh, J.

¶1As between landlord and tenant, unless the right to remove fixtures after the expiration of the term is specially reserved in the lease, the rule is well settled that such fixtures must be removed by the tenant before his term expires, or at least while he continues to hold possession as tenant. Where, however, his tenure is uncertain, and such that it may be determined unexpectedly to him, this rule is modified so as to allow a reasonable time for the removal of fixtures after the termination of the lease. Ombony v. Jones, 19 N. Y. 234, 238; Loughran v. Ross, 45 N. Y. 792, 797.

¶2This qualification is usually applied to leases of uncertain duration, as for life, or at will, or until the happening of some event. But where, as in this state, by statute, leases at will can only be terminated after reasonable notice, it would seem that, in ordinary eases, the time limited for the expiration of the term is rendered sufficiently definite to warrant the application of the general rule. In any event, we see no reason why it should not have been applied in the case at bar. Tyler, Fixt. *453.

¶3The plaintiff occupied certain premises of defendant as tenant at will. The building in controversy, which was placed on the land by the plaintiff’s assignor, and purchased and occupied by the plaintiff, it is conceded was a fixture as between landlord and tenant, and the latter had a right to remove it if such removal was seasonably effected. Whether he had lost such right by delay is the question to be determined here. He was ejected from the premises after due notice to quit, and for default in the payment of rent due. The char*461acter of the tenancy, and this defendant’s right to put an end to the lease, and recover possession, were determined in the proceedings, for forcible detainer referred to by the court in its findings, the record of which was introduced in evidence, and is made part of the settled case returned here. In that action, which was between the same parties, it was alleged and found that the plaintiff herein was largely in arrears for rent, and that due notice to quit was served on him as tenant at will, and that he was ejected under process served months thereafter; so that he had ample notice and opportunity to remove the building before he was dispossessed. This action for the alleged subsequent conversion of the same by the defendant cannot, therefore, be maintained.

¶4Order reversed, and case remanded.

/37/minn/459 · .json · Public domain