Cooney Bros. v. State

47 Misc. 2d 641, 262 N.Y.S.2d 974, 1965 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2282
CourtNew York Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 10, 1965
DocketClaim No. 42437
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 47 Misc. 2d 641 (Cooney Bros. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cooney Bros. v. State, 47 Misc. 2d 641, 262 N.Y.S.2d 974, 1965 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2282 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1965).

Opinion

Ronald E. Coleman, J.

The claim was duly filed on June 8, 1963 and has not been assigned or submitted to any other court or tribunal for audit or determination. By order of the court it was tried together with Stickles v. State of New York, Claim No. 40919. By a separate decision of this date we have decided both claims.

In 1956 the claimant leased adjacent properties in the Town of Hancock, County of Delaware, which contained sand and gravel deposits as follows: Susan E. Stickles 104± acres and Amos H. Bojo and Catherine Vetrone 69.299± acres. In 1957 the claimant leased from Harold E. Schofield and Mary A. Schofield 100± acres which contained rock deposits and adjoined the Stickles property. On the Stickles property the claimant constructed a plant to process sand, gravel, crushed rock and stone. On the Schofield property the claimant opened a rock quarry and constructed a primary crusher. The Bojo property was held as a reserve supply for sand and gravel. In the construction of new Route 17, the State appropriated approximately 26± acres from the property owned by Mrs. Stickles on which part of claimant’s plant was located.

The property under lease was located approximately five miles easterly of the Village of Hancock, was on both the northerly and southerly sides of old Route 17 and was bound on its southerly side by the East Branch Delaware River. Claimant also owned and operated a bituminous plant at Cadosia, approximately three and one-half miles westerly of this property at which it used sand and gravel products.

The lease provided that “ 5. The Lessee shall have the right at any time to remove any of the Lessee’s houses, tanks, structures or other equipment, appurtenances or appliances of any kind brought by it upon said demised premises whether affixed to the soil or not.” It also contained a provision that the lessee would pay any additional real estate taxes levied on the premises due to the installations placed thereon by it. The lease further provided that “ 9, In the event any of the prop[643]*643erty leased herein is taken by condemnation by the State of New York or any subdivision thereof, then and in that event the award in any such condemnation proceeding shall be payable to the Lessors hereof.” Accordingly, the lease terminated when the State made its appropriation and no claim was made herein by the claimant for any award based on any difference between retained rental and the economic rental for the remaining term of its lease.

The lease was for a period of five years commencing on September 15, 1956 with an option to renew upon terms to be mutually agreed upon. The State’s appropriation took place on December 23, 1960. Under the terms of the lease its initial term would have expired on September 15, 1961 but for the purposes of our determination we need not speculate as to whether the lease would have been renewed or on what terms. (Matter of City of New York [Allen St.], 256 N. Y. 236, 249.)

While the State’s appropriation was made in 1960, it was not until late 1962 and early 1963 that claimant dismantled its plant and relocated it at Hawk Mountain, approximately three miles westerly of the Stickles property where it presently is in operation. At that time the contractor constructing new Route 17 requested that claimant move its property so that the new highway on the Stickles property could be completed. The claim herein made by the claimant is that it is entitled to be paid for the improvements made by it on the Stickles property. In order to process sand, gravel, rock and stone, claimant had erected buildings, had placed machinery, bins, crushers, treatment plants and other equipment needed to process the raw material. The improvements made were of the type that were possible to move but to erect the same on the Stickles property required cement abutments and other installations which were permanent in nature and altogether claimant’s improvements were permanent in character. Claimant’s proof was that the installation, including the equipment in place on the date of the appropriation, had a value of $451,700 and that the cost of dismantling and moving it to the Hawk Mountain site was $451,040.76, which included also the cost of exploration and site preparation at that location as well as the cost of moving its primary crusher from the adjoining Schofield property. "While an expert witness for the claimant placed a value on its interest before and after the appropriation and a witness for the State testified to a sum for damages to claimant’s plant even though he considered it personal property, the testimony of both of these witnesses was nothing more than opinion testimony which was of no value to us.

[644]*644The question for us to determine is whether or not the improvements placed on the Stickles property by the claimant were realty or fixtures which are compensable. In McRea v. Central Nat. Bank of Troy (66 N. Y. 489, 495, 497) the court held that “The purpose of the annexation, and the intent with which it was made, is in such cases the most important consideration. The permanency of the attachment does not depend so much upon the degree of physical force with which the thing is attached as upon the motive and the intention of the party in attaching it * * # The object, and not the method of the attachment, appears to be considered the controlling feature.” In Matter of City of New York [Whitlock Ave.] (278 N. Y. 276) the court reiterated the rule that annexation, adaptability, and intention of permanency are effective to convert a chattel into a fixture, regardless of removability. The claimant as a lessee also would be entitled to compensation for fixtures installed by it which would have become a part of the realty if they had been installed permanently by an owner of the fee or which would cause injury to the realty or the fixtures by removal thereof. (Queensboro Farm Prods. v. State of New York, 6 Misc 2d 445, 449, affd. 5 N Y 2d 977.) While it was possible to move the improvements made by the claimant to the Stickles property in the erection of its processing plant and in fact they were moved, these improvements were of such a nature that it could be said that they were permanently installed and their removal caused damage to both the realty and the fee.

Recently there has been a trend to liberalize the law in respect to fixtures, particularly what is and what is not compensable. (Marraro v. State of New York, 12 N Y 2d 285, 291; United States v. Certain Props., etc., 306 F. 2d 439, see, esp. Il Progresso, pp. 445-449.) In these two opinions, there is a detailed discussion of the leading cases on fixtures. In addition, numerous cases from other States as well as New York are discussed with particular emphasis on recent developments in an article entitled “Fixtures in Condemnation — Concepts New and Old”, Sackman, 1964 Institute on Eminent Domain (Southwestern Legal Foundation Proceedings of Sixth Annual Conference April 30-May 1, 1964, published by Matthew Bender & Company, pp. 1-45).

A substantial award was made in this State based on the difference between the value of fixtures which had been removed and the value which they added when used in connection with the property as a “ going concern ” in full operation. (Glen & Mohawk Milk Assn. v. State of New York, 2 A D 2d 95, however [645]*645cf. Matter of People v. Johnson & Co., 219 App. Div. 285, affd. 245 N. Y. 627, cert. den.

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Related

Bullis v. State
51 Misc. 2d 448 (New York State Court of Claims, 1966)
Cooney Bros. v. State
47 Misc. 2d 1026 (New York State Court of Claims, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
47 Misc. 2d 641, 262 N.Y.S.2d 974, 1965 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cooney-bros-v-state-nyclaimsct-1965.