Lonergan v. Monroe

WILSON, J.

This action was brought to recover damages in the sum of $3,600 for the alleged conversion of neon signs and transformers. The court awarded plaintiff the sum of $289 and he has appealed from the judgment contending that he is entitled to the amount demanded in his complaint.

In June, 1940, pursuant to a written conditional sales contract, appellant constructed several neon signs for one Dorothee Butte on premises which she was occupying under a lease. The contract provided that title to the signs should remain in appellant until all installment payments had been made. Within a year after the execution of the contract Mrs. Butte abandoned the premises leaving the signs in place, and failed to pay the installments required by her contract. Title to the real property was transferred to respondent Monroe in December, 1942. Early in 1943, upon being notified by the police that some person had broken into the building, he visited the premises and in addition to broken glassware and dishes he observed some broken tubing used in neon signs. In June, 1944, he made a written lease of the premises to respondent Kroesen and another by the terms of which all equipment attached to the building on the demised premises remained the property of respondent Monroe, the lessor. The property remained vacant during substantially the entire period of

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three years from the date of its abandonment by Mrs. Butte until the execution of the lease from Monroe to Kroesen.

When the last mentioned lease was executed the lessor granted permission to the lessees to make such use -of the neon signs and the equipment connected therewith as they should desire. One of the signs, referred to as the large sign, was suspended between two iron posts imbedded in concrete, and the small sign was over the doorway of the premises, both reading “The Little Dutch Garden.” The lessees did not intend to and did not adopt that name for the restaurant they were preparing to operate in the building. Pursuant to the terms of the lease and the permission granted by the lessor the lessees, in redecorating and renovating the premises, removed the signs and replaced them with others designating the name which they had chosen for their restaurant. They sold nine electrical transformers that had been a part of the equipment placed on the property by appellant.