11.5 VI. The Unit Rule Has No Application To Fixture Claims

• Jurisdiction: New York

VI. THE UNIT RULE HAS NO APPLICATION TO FIXTURE CLAIMS

The unit rule provides that one award be made for a parcel, notwithstanding that there are separate interests in the parcel. The rule has many applications, including instances where there is a leasehold interest.⁴⁷⁴ Where fixture interests are concerned, whether claimed by owner or tenant,⁴⁷⁵ the courts have specifically disavowed any attempt to reduce the fee award by the amounts awarded for trade fixtures.

The unit rule would carve the amount awarded for the fixtures out of the fee award if the fixture claimant was a tenant, or make no award. The unit rule has been criticized and said to be in “the shadow-land between substance and procedure.”⁴⁷⁶

Recent appellate cases have put this attempt to limit just compensation to rest. In Whitehall Corners, Inc. v. State,⁴⁷⁷ the condemnor, State of New York, in an appropriation, attempted to have amounts awarded to a trade fixture...