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If Trump or his interests owned, say, 25% of a building with three other partners, and if the judgment is upheld, does that mean that the state of New York assumes the assets and liabilities that Trump has? The state has no ability to compel the other partners to sell the building. Therefore, the state will have replaced Trump as a partial owner and will either sell the partnership interest on the open market, receive the income the building generates, or if there is a default on the property, be pro rata liable for the debt if the lender forecloses.

It’s not as simple as what you’ve presented there.

I have been involved in business arrangements much smaller than a major NY real estate deal, and even those contracts were written to address a scenario like the one you presented.

If Trump owns (for example) 25% of a property, the owners of the other 75% don’t want to suddenly become partners with some retarded mutant they don’t know — especially under adversarial circumstances. So the partnership agreement will be written in such a way that there is a degree of protection given to all the partners to avoid this scenario.

The most common scenario would be a provision in the contract that covers a case where a partner dies or gets divorced.