Fixture

A thing fixed to the freehold.

Archl>.

Landl. dk Ten. 859.— Any thing annexed to, (that is, fastened to, or connected with) the freehold.

2 Smith's Lead, Cos. 114.

An article of a personal nature affixed to the freehold

2 Kent's Com. 344, 345.

A thing of an accessory character

annexed to houses or lands.

2 Steph. Com, 260.

A moveable thing which

either by the operation of nature, or by human art, is connected with an immo« vable thing in such a manner as to constitute a part of it. 1 Mackeld, Civ. Law, 152, § 147. — ^To be b. fixture, a thing must, on the one hand, be of an accessory character, and, on the other, it must be in some actual union or connexion with the principal subject, and not merely brought into contact with it.* 2 Steph. Com. 260.— Therefore the walls and floors of a house, being an original and necessary part of the principal subject, are not fixtures; and, on the other hand, buildings which merely rest upon the ground, without being fixed in, or to it, ana pictures and glasses suspended against a wall are in no sense fixtures. Id. ibid.

Archb. Landl. <k Ten. 362.

But see infra. Mr. Stephen considers the term fixtures as of popular origin.

2 Steph. Com. 260, note (»).

It may be doubted, however, whether it is not derived, with the law of fixtures itself, from the civil law, in which the term adfixa, or affixa, (things fixed or fastened,) was used to denote these accessories.

Dig. 50. 16. 245.

Bee Ajfixus

It is not used in the common law, as the same writer justly observes, with much uniformity of meaning. Properly, it denotes something fixed and permanent, as distinguished from that which is removeable, (the Lat. fijcum having the sense not only of attachment or connexion, but of stability,) and in this respect the popular coincides entirely with the primary legal meaning; the general rule being, that a fixture once annexed to the realty cannot be removedi or separated from it, as against the owner of the freehold or inheritance, to whom it belongs.

2 Steph, Com, 261. 2 Smith's Lead, Cos. 114. 2 Kent's Com. 843.

From the various exceptions to this rule, however, which have been gradually established, a distinction has not onlj arisen between fixtures removeable, and irremoveable, but the word fixtures itself has been said to have acquired the peculiar meaning o/ chattels which have been annexed to the freehold, but which are removeable at the will of the person who annexed them.

1 Cr. if. ifc jR. 276.

Grady on.

Fixtures, 1, 2.

More than this, --it has been said that the term fijitures does not necessarily mean things affixed to the freehold.

5 Mees, d: W. 175.

This goes, to justify Mr. Chitty's remark \\i2X fixture is a term in general denoting the very reverse of the name.

1 Chiit, Gen, Pr. 161.

And this idea has been carried so far in Pennsylvania, as to lead to the establishment of an entirely new definition of a fixture, viz.: something essential to the use of the freehold, whether actually fastened to it or not.

2 Watts <t Serg. 116, 390. See 6 Grem Uafs R. 157.

On the other hand, and as the opposite extreme of this doctrine, it has been held in Connecticut that mere annexation to the realty was not sufficient to give the attribute of a fixture to a chattel personal, unless it was so annexed that an injury would result to the freehold from the mere act of removal.

9 Conn. R. 67. And see 14 MoAS, i2. 352.

A middle ground has been taken in New- York, between these two opinions.

20 Wendel Vts R. 636.

These conflicting decisions, which are collected in 2 Smith's Leading Cases, 121, (Am. editor's note,) have tended to unsettle the definition of the term fixture, or rather to introduce a variety of definitions which are, in a greater or less degree, departures from the primary meaning above given. Fixtures are now usually divided into several kinds; as landlord's fixtures, tenant's fixtures, trade fixtures, and^arw or agricultural fixtures.

Archb. Landl. <t Ten, 359.

See U. S. Digest dt Supplement, Fixtures.