In re Willcox

142 A.D. 680, 127 N.Y.S. 777, 1911 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 370
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 17, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 142 A.D. 680 (In re Willcox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Willcox, 142 A.D. 680, 127 N.Y.S. 777, 1911 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 370 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1911).

Opinion

Clarke, J.:

Appeal from an order denying a motion brought under section 59 of the Rapid Transit Act.(Laws of 1891, chap. 4, added by Laws of 1894, chap. 752, as amd. by Laws of 1895, chap. 519, and Laws of 1909, chap. 498), to amend nunc pro tunc a claim filed on May 20, 1908, for property taken in this proceeding; The proceedings affect six parcels of land on the southeasterly corner of Centre and Walker streets condemned for the subway loop.

Appellant claims as assignee of Patterson, Gottfried & Hunter, Ltd., a corporation, which had leases, running to May 1, 1912, of the basement, store floor'and first and second lofts of the corner building 146-150 Centre street and 111 and 115 Walker street, and of the entire building adjoining, No. 117 Walker street.

The company dealt in hardware, machinery, metals, tools and supplies, and it fitted up said premises as store and offices suitable to the conduct of a heavy volume of business by a large force of men. This involved the usual show windows, interior trim] hard- . wood floors, wires and lights and plumbing, built-in shelving, bins, racks, etc., and also mezzanine floors, stairways, partitions and a large variety of other items required to increase the available space in the buildings, and adapt the same to the uses of the merchandise.

Title to this property passed to the city on April 22, 1908. In Matter of City of New York (101 App. Div. 527) Mr. Justice Ingraham had said : I think it clear that generally all of such installation becomes a part of the realty, and that even as between landlord and tenant, the tenant would not have the right at the expiration of his lease to remove what has become apart of the building itself; but as between this landlord and his tenants the right of the tenants to these fixtures was, apart from from the use in connection with the building during the balance of the term demised, solely that of a right to remove at the expiration of the term such portion .of the machinery as had not become a part of the realty. * * * As between landlord and tenant, as I view it, all the interest that the tenant has at the expiration of his lease is the right to remove such of the property as he has placed upon the demised premises [682]*682which are trade fixtures; and upon the property being- taken for public use he has the right to have the value of his lease and also the value of this right to remove these trade fixtures at the expiration of his lease. He would then receive full compensation if he were paid the value of the property that he has the right to remove after it is severed from the property.. He certainly has not the right, as against his landlord, to have a value fixed, upon such property based upon what it would cost to install it, with a depreciation of its usé during the time that it has been in use.” That case was decided in 1905. ' , .

Under that- exposition of the law the claimant filed a claim as assignee of Patterson, Gottfried & Hunter, Ltd., alleging that, said corporation is the "owner of an estate for years, "and concluding, “ I,. J. Archibald Murray, -of the Borough of Manhattan, City \of New York, do hereby make claim for the value of so much of tli-p estates for years belonging to said Patterson, Gottfried & Hunter, Ltd., in the above-described premises as have been or shall be taken! herein, and for the damages justly due to said corporation or to me ' as its said assignee by reason of this proceeding.”

As soon as his parcels were reached in their turn the claimant presented before the commissioners his evidence of the value of his property taken and concluded the same on October 6, 1910, when lie.rested, but in the meanwhile two further decisions of the courts had been made. The foregoing case was appealed (Matter of City of New York [Conron v. Glass],. 192 N. Y. 295) and was decided in 1908. The Court of Appeals sa'id: “ In the original award made by. the commissioners they awarded a large sum for land and improvements to the owner and landlord, Glass. They-also awarded certain sums to the appellants herein respectively for the value of the unexpired terms of their leases, and these, awards are not in any, way involved on this appeal. It appeared, however, that the appel- , lants,, in order to fit the premises leased by them for tlie purposes for which they' were to be used had expended large sums for additions and improvements which are claimed by them to have been ■ trade fixtures, and it is in connection with the awards made for these improvements that the questions have arisen which arc now presented for our consideration. On account of such additions the. original report of the commissioners awarded to the appellants

\ [683]*683John E. Conron and Joseph Conron, composing the firm of Conron Brothers, lessees, the sum of thirty thousand dollars for 1 fixtures not so attached as to have become the property of' the owner of the land,’ and to the appellant T. H. Wheeler Company the sum of $4,150, for 1 fixtures not so attached as to have become the property of the owner of the land.’ ” Speaking of the Conron claim, the court said: “ The commissioners awarded $30,000 for certain additions made to the premises by the tenants and which in their opinion constituted fixtures which the latter could remove. Apparently, and as seems to have been assumed, this award was regarded as the fair market value of these fixtures at the time of the condemnation proceedings, taking into account a wide range of circumstances bearing on that value. The city, being the one to pay it, and also the present parties, acquiesced in the measure and amount of this award and the city acquired title to the property at that valuation and is out of the proceeding. The only question left for dispute was how this sum thus paid on a certain basis of valuation for certain articles should be divided between the two parties, landlord and tenants, making opposing claims thereto,” and laid down this rule: “ When the city has been charged with and has assented to a certain sum for certain property even though it be too large as against the city, we see no justification for adopting a different basis of valuation on a settlement between the landlord and tenants of their respective rights in the fund thus produced.”

The claimant avers that he so conducted his case as to be in a position to recover under either rule which should finally be approved by the court; that is, he offered and was permitted to make proof of the value of his assignor’s leasehold estates regarded as estates in property improved and equipped with fixtures, or, in other words, the value of his leases, including therein the value of the use of the fixtures in connection with the use of the land to which they had been attached and the value of the right to remove them on termination of the leases. . And he had, after completion of and distinct from the above proof, presented testimony of the value of the leaseholds regarded as estates in empty buildings and of the nature, materials, construction, method of attachment to the realty and adaptation to use in connection therewith of each item of trade fixtures installed by his assignor and of the market value [684]*684thereof regarded as attached hut sev'erable on the day of condemnation..

After the decisions alluded to,, as well as Matter of City of New York, Avenue A (66 Misc. Rep. 512, 513), the corporation counsel insisted that this claimant was not entitled to take advantage of the newly-declared rule because he had not in distinct words claimed the value of his fixtures.

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Related

In re Willcox
165 A.D. 197 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1914)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 A.D. 680, 127 N.Y.S. 777, 1911 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 370, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-willcox-nyappdiv-1911.