IMMOVABLES
(Ref: John Bouvier, A Law Dictionary Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States of America and the Several States of the American Union, Childs & Peterson, c1856.)
IMMOVABLES, civil law. Things are movable or immovable. Immovables, res immobiles, are things in general, such as cannot move themselves or be removed from one place to another. But this definition, strictly speaking, is applicable only to such things as are immovable by their own nature, and not to such as are so only by the destination of the law.
There are things immovable by
their nature, others by their destination, and others by the objects to which they are
applied.
Lands and buildings or other
constructions, whether they have their foundations in the soil or not, are immovable by
their nature. By the common law, buildings erected on the land are not considered real
estate, unless they have been let into, or united to the land, or to substances previously
connected therewith. Ferard on Fixt. 2.
Things, which the owner of the
land has placed upon it for its service and improvement, are immovables by destination, as
seeds, plants, fodder, manure, pigeons in a pigeon-house, bee-hives, and the like. By the
common. law, erections with or without a foundation, when made for the purpose of trade,
are considered personal estate. 2 Pet. S. C. Rep. 137; 3 Atk. 13; Ambl. 113
A servitude established on real
estate, is an instance of an immovable, which is so considered in consequence of the
object to which it is applied. Vide Civil Code of Louis. B. 2, t. 1, c. 2, art. 453-463;
Poth. Des Choses, Sec. 1; Poth. de la Communante, n. 25, et seq; Clef des Lois Romaines,
mot Immeubles.
