Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/320/8/38769/
Timestamp: 2019-07-17 00:16:25
Document Index: 459806910

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 63', '§ 64', '§ 11', '§ 3', '§ 2', '§ 3']

Julia Nicholson v. Altona Corporation, Appellant, Andv. I. Realty Corporation, 320 F.2d 8 (3d Cir. 1963) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Third Circuit › 1963 › Julia Nicholson v. Altona Corporation, Appellant, Andv. I. Realty Corporation
Julia Nicholson v. Altona Corporation, Appellant, Andv. I. Realty Corporation, 320 F.2d 8 (3d Cir. 1963)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit - 320 F.2d 8 (3d Cir. 1963)
Argued January 29, 1963
James A. Richards, Jr., St. Thomas, V. I., for appellant.
George H. T. Dudley, Dudley & Hoffman, Charlotte Amalie, V. I., for appellees.
The plaintiff's claim of ownership of the house in controversy is based upon her assertion that it is a superficiary house as to which under the law of the Virgin Islands the title may be vested in one owner while the title to the land on which it is erected may be vested in a separate owner. It appears to be conceded that the house was erected and occupied by a former tenant of the land, Thovald Nielsen, and that the plaintiff purchased the house from his heirs on October 6, 1955, for $2,500.00, and thereafter until her eviction was herself a tenant of the land on which the house stood and regularly paid rent for the land to the defendant or its predecessors in title. The case thus requires us to determine and apply the law of the Virgin Islands with respect to superficiary1 houses.
While the existence of superficiary houses has frequently been recognized and referred to in Virgin Islands legislation, the only statutory definition of a superficiary house which our research has disclosed is contained in section 1 of the Act of January 25, 1960, No. 521, Sess.L.1960 P. 13, entitled an Act "To Provide for Acquisition of Land by the Government of the Virgin Islands for Resettlement, through a Local Urban Renewal Program of Superficiary House Owners, to Provide an Appropriation Therefor, and for Other Purposes." That statutory definition is as follows: [p. 14]
"For the purpose of this Act, a `superficiary house' shall be a property in which title to the land is vested in one owner and title to the building is vested in a separate owner."
The statute thus makes it clear that a "superficiary house" is one owned by a person other than the owner of the land on which it stands. But the statute does not help us on the question as to the circumstances in which and the extent to which such division of ownership is recognized by the Virgin Islands law.
"Land includes all the fixtures and buildings thereon, and everything growing on the soil (unless otherwise specified), with the exception of any wooden houses belonging to others on the land, which are accustomed to be moved from place to place, and any wooden houses the property of lessees, and, in towns or villages, with the exception of such movable wooden houses as are the property of the residents therein, and not of the owner of the soil."6
We conclude that the law of the Virgin Islands with respect to superficiary houses may be stated as follows: When a person, e. g., a tenant, who is lawfully entitled or permitted by the owner to occupy a piece of land erects thereon or removes thereto a dwelling house the house (unless otherwise agreed) remains his personal property, even though annexed to the land, and does not become a part of the land or the property of the landowner. Correlatively, when the owner of a superficiary house vacates the land, either at his own option or because his tenancy or permission to occupy it has been terminated, it becomes his duty to remove the house from the land. If for any reason he fails to do so within a reasonable time he thereby relinquishes his ownership of the house to the owner of the land upon which it has been left. The latter thereafter may deal with the house in any way he sees fit without incurring any obligation to account to its former owner for its value, use or destruction.
The plaintiff has raised a question of jurisdiction which will be discussed briefly. It appears that pursuant to stipulation between the parties the defendant deposited in escrow a certified check for $2,500.00 "to be applied toward the satisfaction of any Judgment that may be rendered by the Court in favor of plaintiff after hearing of the within claims on the merits." It was further agreed "that upon determination of the cause in favor of defendant, Altona Corporation, said check shall be returned by the Escrow Agent to defendant without offset, except as may be directed by the Court." The plaintiff asserts that since her counsel had this sum of $2,500.00 in their hands when the District Court entered judgment in her favor in that amount, the judgment must be regarded as having been satisfied by voluntary payment. Accordingly, she argues, the appeal is moot and must be dismissed.
The term "superficiary" has been defined as "Situated or built on another man's land, as a house or other structure." Webster's New International Dictionary, 2d ed., p. 2531. It was probably derived from the superficies of the Roman law although there is no indication that the perpetual nature of that right was ever imported into the Virgin Islands law
Kutter v. Smith, 1864, 2 Wall. 491, 69 U.S. 491, 17 L. Ed. 830, 22 Am.Jur., Fixtures, § 63
Van Ness v. Pacard, 1829, 2 Pet. 137, 27 U.S. 137, 143-144, 7 L. Ed. 374, 377; White's Appeal, 1849, 10 Pa. 252; Wycoff v. Gavriloff Motors, Inc., 1961, 362 Mich. 582, 107 N.W.2d 820, 823-825, 86 A.L.R.2d 663; 22 Am.Jur., Fixtures, §§ 64, 65. See also King v. Morris, 1907, 74 N.J.L. 810, 68 A. 162, 14 L.R.A., N.S., 885
In the Virgin Islands a superficiary house is treated as a chattel. See In re Wright's Estate, D.C.V.I., 1961, 192 F. Supp. 812, 4 V.I. 291.
Frost v. Schinkel, 1931, 121 Neb. 784, 238 N.W. 659, 666, 77 A.L.R. 1381, 1390-1391; 22 Am.Jur., Fixtures, § 11. See also Martin v. Pilaczynski, 1939, 63 Ohio App. 101, 25 N.E.2d 362; Ingold v. Phoenix Assur. Co., 1949, 230 N.C. 142, 52 S.E.2d 366, 368-369; Gilbert v. Easterling, 1950, 217 S.C. 267, 60 S.E.2d 595
Kutter v. Smith, 1864, 2 Wall. 491, 69 U.S. 491, 17 L. Ed. 830; American Law of Property, Vol. 1, § 3.81
Definition of "Land" contained in the first schedule to the Title by Registration Act of February 1, 1887, II Federal Acts of the Leeward Islands, revised ed. 1927, ch. 99, p. 940. Prior to 1956 the British Virgin Islands comprised a Presidency of the British Colony known as the Leeward Islands Federation
The removability of superficiary houses is indicated or clearly implied in Virgin Islands statutes and regulations promulgated thereunder. See, e. g., Ord.Mun.C. St.T. and St.J.App. November 18, 1953 (Bill No. 311); Act of January 25, 1960, No. 521, §§ 2, 4, Sess.L.1960, pp. 14-15; Title 21, V.I.Rules and Reg., § 3-11 (issued pursuant to Act of May 16, 1961, No. 673, Sess.L.1961, p. 27)