Sir William Forbes and Others, proprietors of certain areas in the New Town of Edinburgh, contracted with Drummond to build, for them, houses on said areas, at a determined price: the price to be paid in certain proportions, according as the building advanced. Drummond proceeded accordingly, and received payment seriatim; but his affairs having gone into disorder, the Lords found, that the materials of wood, which he had collected for carrying on the building, while they remained unfixed in the houses, were liable to be poinded as Drummond's property; but, after being fixed in the houses, became a part of the houses, for which the furnishers had no claim upon the houses, but only an action against Drummond,—having furnished them upon his credit.
The case had been different, had the right of the area been in Drummond: in that case, inedificatum solo cedit; so that the furnishers of the materials would have had a claim upon the houses, and not personally, only against Drummond. And so the Lords thought in a cause decided 24th July 1776, Brown against Johnstone.
