Costa & Head (Birmingham One), Ltd. v. National Bank of Commerce of Birmingham

I agree with Birmingham One’s claim that, even though the decisions of this Court uniformly hold that improvements located on real property are prima facie part of the land and are therefore owned by the owner of the land, see, e.g., Sullivan v. Lawler, 222 Ala. 628, 133 So. 911 (1931), nevertheless, these decisions recognize that, by agreement, parties may sever the ownership of improvements from ownership of the land, and that this is what has occurred in this case.

I recognize that the general rule, of course, is that the law does not favor piecemeal redemptions, and that, absent an…