How can a piece of property be classified as a fixture or a chattel?

Manitoba, Canada


The following excerpt is from Sala v. Manitoba, 2002 MBCA 112 (CanLII):

49 In Holland v. Hodgson, Blackburn J. gave examples of the way in which the same article can be classified as a chattel or a fixture depending on the premises in question, and the underlying purpose when placing the article. He stated at p. 335: Thus blocks of stone placed one on the top of another without any mortar or cement for the purpose of forming a dry stone wall would become part of the land, though the same stones, if deposited in a builder’s yard and for convenience sake stacked on the top of each other in the form of a wall, would remain chattels. On the other hand, an article may be very firmly fixed to the land, and yet the circumstances may be such as to shew that it was never intended to be part of the land, and then it does not become part of the land. The anchor of a large ship must be very firmly fixed in the ground in order to bear the strain of the cable, yet no one could suppose that it became part of the land, even though it should chance that the shipowner was also the owner of the fee of the spot where the anchor was dropped. An anchor similarly fixed in the soil for the purpose of bearing the strain of the chain of a suspension bridge would be part of the land.

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