Union Cent. Life Ins. Co. v. Tillery

• Decision Date: 28 November 1899
• Citation: Union Cent. Life Ins. Co. v. Tillery, 54 S.W. 220, 152 Mo. 421 (Mo. 1899)
• Parties: UNION CENT. LIFE INS. CO. v. TILLERY.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

54 S.W. 220

152 Mo. 421

UNION CENT. LIFE INS. CO. v. TILLERY.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

November 28, 1899.

FIXTURES OF TENANT—REMOVAL—FORECLOSURE SALE—RIGHTS OF PURCHASER.

Defendant, while a tenant, having erected buildings on the land under agreement with the landlord that he might remove them on termination of the lease, on conveyance of the premises on foreclosure sale to plaintiff without notice of such agreement the buildings pass as part of the land, and defendant cannot remove them.

Appeal from circuit court, Moniteau county; D. W. Shackleford, Judge.

Injunction by the Union Central Life Insurance Company against James Tillery. From an order dissolving a temporary injunction and dismissing the petition, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

This is an action for injunctive relief, the object being to restrain the removal by defendant of a dwelling house, stable, shed, and corncrib from a certain tract of land in Moniteau county, of which plaintiff was the owner. A temporary injunction was granted by the judge of the circuit court of that county, but which was, after answer filed by defendant, in which he alleged that he had the right to remove the buildings under his contract with Burke, under whom he held possession, was dissolved, and the petition dismissed. Plaintiff appeals.

Moore & Williams, for appellant. Wood & Wood, for respondent.

BURGESS, J.

Plaintiff acquired title to the land upon which the buildings were situated under the foreclosure sale of a deed of trust executed on the 15th day of September, 1892, by one Edmund Burke and wife, upon that and other lands, and by a quitclaim deed from said Burke to it, executed on the 15th day of January, 1896, the same day upon which the sheriff who sold the land to plaintiff under the foreclosure sale executed to plaintiff a deed for the land under that sale. The quitclaim deed from Burke to plaintiff contains the following: "And the said Edmund Burke hereby promises and agrees to deliver full and absolute possession of all the above-described real estate on the first day of March, 1896, to the party of the second part." On December 8, 1894, defendant was a tenant of Edmund Burke, and in the occupancy of the land upon which the buildings in question were erected, and on that day entered into a written contract with him, by the terms of which he was to erect the buildings in question thereon, and to have the privilege of removing the same from the land under the terms and conditions of the contract. The contract provides as follows: "If at any time said Burke should desire that I discontinue to occupy said four acres, I am to receive three hundred and sixty days' notice in order to require me to surrender the possession thereof. But, being aware of the fact that said land has been conveyed by deed of trust to J. R. Clark, for the benefit of the Union Central Life Insurance Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, it is distinctly understood that if at any time said Burke should be required, by any agreement made by him with said insurance...