ACCESSION
accession (ak-sesh-<<schwa>>n).1. The act of acceding or agreeing <the family’s accession
to the kidnapper’s demands>.2. A coming into possession of a right or office <as promised, the
state’s budget was balanced within two years after the governor’s accession>.3.Int’l law. A method
by which a nation that is not among a treaty’s original signatories becomes a party to it <Italy
became a party to the nuclear-arms treaty by accession>. See Vienna Convention on the Law of
Treaties, art. 15 (1155 U.N.T.S. 331, 8 I.L.M. 679 (1969)). — Also termed adherence; adhesion.
See INSTRUMENT OF ACCESSION . 4. The acquisition of title to personal property by
bestowing labor on a raw material to convert it to another thing <the owner’s accession to the
lumber produced from his land>. — Also termed (in Roman law) accessio. See ADJUNCTION(2).
[Cases: Accession 1. C.J.S. Accession §§ 2–8.]
“Accessio is the combination of two chattels belonging to different persons into a single
article: as when A’s cloth is used to patch B’s coat, or a vehicle let on hire-purchase has new
accessories fitted to it.” R.F.V. Heuston, Salmond on the Law of Torts 113 (17th ed. 1977).
5. A property owner’s right to all that is added to the property (esp. land) naturally or by labor,
including land left by floods and improvements made by others <the newly poured concrete
driveway became the homeowner’s property by accession>. • In Louisiana law, accession is the
owner’s right to whatever is produced by or united with something, either naturally or artificially.
La. Civ. Code arts. 483, 490, 507. Cf. ANNEXATION. 6. An improvement to existing personal
property, such as new shafts on golf clubs.“The problem of accessions arises infrequently, judging
from reported cases, but an obvious instance of the difficulty arises where a motor vehicle is being
financed by a secured party and the debtor in possession of necessity acquires a new engine or
new tires for the vehicle …. If the seller of the engine or tires reserved a security interest at the
time the goods were installed, the seller should prevail over the vehicle’s secured party, with a
right to remove the accessions. Conversely, if the sale were on open credit with no security interest
reserved, or if the seller acquired a security interest after installation of the goods, then the
financer of the vehicle should prevail.” Ray D. Henson, Handbook on Secured Transactions Under
the Uniform Commercial Code § 4-22, at 93 (2d ed. 1979).
7. The physical uniting of goods with other goods in such a manner that the identity of the
original goods is not lost. UCC § 9-102(a)(1).8.ACCESSORYSHIP. [Blacks Law 8th]