PROCEDURAL HISTORY: Action in replevin (repossession, property wrongfully taken by defendant so plaintiff holds property until final judgment of case)

FACTS: John Goddard (P) leased land to James Elickson, whose friend Peter Hoagland dug up an aerolite (meteorite) from the ground and sold it to HV Winchell ( D).

ISSUE: Is an object (from another planet) found in the soil belong to the finder (as though property is lost or abandoned) or to the owner of premises (as an attachment)?

HOLDING: To the Owner.

RATIONALE: Just as soil moves from one portion of the country to the other, planetary masses move from one planet to another. The final resting place of such object (whether soil, rock or other) still belong to the owner of the premises. “Whatever is affixed to the soil belong to the soil” and “a permanent annexation to the soil, of a thing in itself personal, makes it a part of the realty”. “Whence, it came is no known, but, under the natural law of its government, it became a part of this earth, and, we think, should be treated as such.”