## Facts

- Dale Wallace Foskett owned a five-acre parcel in Jefferson County, Wisconsin.
- Foskett bought a Marshfield mobile home and signed an installment contract; he also executed a real estate mortgage on the land to the seller, later assigned to Commercial Credit Corporation.
- The mobile home was approximately 68 feet long, weighed about 15,000 pounds, and could not move under its own power.
- After delivery, the home was placed on cinder blocks and connected to a well, septic system, and electric lines; it was not moved again.
- Foskett and his wife continuously occupied the mobile home as their only residence until removed by order in the bankruptcy proceeding.
- Foskett did not obtain a motor-vehicle certificate of title for the home, sought homeowner’s insurance, requested removal of the wheels, and applied for a building permit requiring a permanent foundation.

## Issues

1. Whether the mobile home, as installed and used, became a fixture and part of the real estate under Wisconsin law.
2. If the mobile home was a fixture, whether Commercial Credit’s real estate mortgage extended to it and had priority over the bankruptcy trustee’s claim that the home should be treated as personal property.

## Decision

- The court affirmed the district court’s order upholding the bankruptcy referee.
- The court held the mobile home became a fixture under Wisconsin law.
- Because the home was part of the real estate, Commercial Credit’s real estate mortgage validly covered it and prevailed over the trustee’s contrary characterization.

## Legal Principles

- Under Wisconsin law, fixture status turns on: (1) physical annexation to realty, (2) adaptation to the use of the realty, and (3) intent to make a permanent accession to the freehold.
- When annexation and adaptation are shown, objective manifestations of intent (installation, utility connections, permitting, insurance choices, and removal of mobility features) are strong evidence of permanence.
- A structure originally capable of highway movement may be treated as realty once permanently affixed and used as a dwelling; motor-vehicle concepts do not bar fixture classification for mortgage and priority analysis.

## Conclusion

The Seventh Circuit concluded that the installed and continuously occupied mobile home was a fixture under Wisconsin law, so the assignee of the real estate mortgage held a superior secured interest in the home as part of the mortgaged realty, defeating the bankruptcy trustee’s attempt to treat it as personal property.


George v. Commercial Credit Corp., 440 F.2d 551 (7th Cir. 1971)