Trailer Test

Fortnight ago The New Yorker discovered a family of three who had moved out of a $125-a-month apartment in mid-Manhattan, taken to living in their two-room trailer jacked up in a Broadway parking lot for $25 a month. First such case to make news in dense New York City, this was only an inkling of a problem that is vexing local authorities and real-estate owners all over the U. S.

According to the latest estimate of the American Automobile Association, there are 1,000,000 people living in trailers. Most of these are constantly on the move. But many have settled down at one spot. The question thus arises: Is the trailer a taxable home or a nontaxable automobile accessory? Last week, in tiny Orchard Lake, Mich., the first court to study the question handed down an answer of tremendous importance to the rapidly growing horde of trailerfolk.

In the summer of 1935 a Pontiac, Mich. factory mechanic named Hildred Gumarsol drove his trailer to Orchard Lake, removed the wheels, jacked it onto blocks, built a front porch, settled down for the summer. Several other trailers followed suit, paying the owner of the land the usual small parking fee. Most of them drove away at summer's end, but Gumarsol left his trailer there all winter, returned last summer to live in it again. Last month, angry owners of nearby real estate brought suit, charging that he was violating a village ordinance by living in a dwelling with less than 400 sq. ft. of floor space. Gumarsol retorted that his trailer was licensed as an automobile accessory. Legally, the case thus hinged on a single local law. But all participants admitted that it pointed up the greater issues of whether trailers should be taxed as personal property or as realty, and whether trailerfolk may continue their present carefree, taxfree, squatter way of life or are to be regulated by a set of brand-new laws.

With these weighty matters hanging on his word, Justice of the Peace Arthur Green took several weeks to decide. Meanwhile, the village council levied a prohibitory license fee on persons renting their property as trailer camps. Hildred Gumarsol, who at first talked of going to the State Supreme Court if necessary, became so pessimistic that he packed up his trailer, left town, first martyr of the brave new trailer world. Last week his pessimism was justified. Justice Green held trial with Gumarsol absent. His decision: that Gumarsol had violated the law and that "trailer shantytowns" would no longer be allowed in Orchard Lake. Fining Defendant Gumarsol only $1 plus $3.10 costs, Justice Green declared: "We gave him a break because we knew this was an important test case."

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