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exception of a few thousand dollars worth , is real estate.

In the first place without taking up the various items, but some of
the more valuable ones. We will take for instance:


Seven boilers and three engines, $15,000
One direct connected generator, 5,600
23 1/2 miles of wire, 3,875
773 3/5 tons of gas main, 14,679

These items are fairly representative of the whole with the exception of
the strictly personal property such as horses etc. Our charter provides
in Section 104 thereof as follows, "The term real estate or property as
used in this act shall be construed to embrace lots, lands and all buildings,
machinery, fixtures and structures of every kind erected on and affixed
to the same." It will thus be seen that by the terms of the charter all
machinery and fixtures are real estate provided they are affixed to the
land of the person assessed. Section 105 undertakes to define personal
estate or property and concluded as follows, "And other things denominated
as personal property under existing or future state of tax laws." This
cannot be properly construed to mean that machinery affixed to the soil of
the owner would be personal property in the face of Section 104. The law
as laid down in numerous decisions is very clearly without the intervention
of Section 104 of the charter that all fixtures affixed to the land of the
owner with the intention on his part of permanently affixing them thereto
are as much as part of the real estate as the buildings erected thereon.
Of course, a different questions arises when fixtures are affixed to leased
land with the intention of removal and as is usual under a contract that
they may be removed. In such case fixtures which would include machinery
would be personal property. The question arises as to whether or not
property such as mains, and wires not on the land of the owner but affixed
thereto and running throughout a city by virtue of a franchise giving them
the right to so run their mains and wires is real or personal property.

The question is answered in the 74 Texas on page 605 in the case of
Keating Implement and Machine Co. vs Marshall Electric Light and Power Co.
in which they use the following language: "The weight of the modern authori-
ties establishes a doctrine that the true criterion for determining whether
a chattel has become an immovable fixture consisted in the united application
of the following tests. Has there been a real or constructive annexation of

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