Owner Wins

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Facts: As part of his duties, a maintenance worker serviced the lights in an office building owned by a real estate company (owner) and managed by an office management corporation (manager). One of the building's tenants contacted the manager and requested that the worker change an overhead light that had stopped working.

Facts: A tenant operated a restaurant-bar on the first floor of a commercial building. A company controlled by the president of the tenant's company had sold the entire building to a new owner in a sale-leaseback transaction whereby the owner leased the first floor back to the tenant, allowing it to continue operating its business.

Facts: A tenant and owner signed a lease extension for shopping center restaurant space that the tenant had been renting to run its pizza parlor. The extended lease term was from June 1, 2010, to May 31, 2026.

Facts: A garment manufacturer tenant signed a lease for the seventh-floor of a building. The tenant and owner acknowledged that because the building's elevator was undergoing renovations, it might not be available for service at the start of the lease term. To account for the possible delay, the tenant and owner included in the lease a secondary commencement date that the tenant could wait until to move into the space.

Facts: A tenant rented commercial space for its beauty salon under a 10-year lease that required rent plus a percentage of the building's operating costs (overhead charge). The estimated monthly overhead charge was $800, and the owner was obligated to calculate the actual overhead charge at the end of the calendar year and charge for underpayments or apply credits as needed.

Facts: An owner sued a tenant for breaching its two leases after the tenant abandoned both of the owner's buildings that it rented and refused to pay the remaining rent due under the leases. Because the tenant failed to appear at two summary dispossess proceedings for nonpayment of rent, the court ruled in favor of the owner. This established that the tenant had breached the leases. However, the court denied the owner's request for a judgment in her favor without a trial as to the tenant's liability for breaching the leases. The owner appealed.

Facts: A tenant signed a lease for office building space. At the same time, the tenant also signed a personal guaranty, guaranteeing his rent obligations under the five-year lease. The tenant moved out of its office space a year before the lease term was to end, but the owner didn't relet the office to a new tenant.

It sued the tenant for all of the outstanding base rent and additional rent—totaling $42,571.84—that the tenant owed under the lease and had personally guaranteed. The owner asked the court for a judgment in its favor without a trial.

Facts: A customer sued a shopping mall after she slipped and fell down concrete steps leading to a fountain, because she was looking at merchandise on a kiosk. The customer claimed that the mall's placement of the kiosk in relation to the stairs created a dangerous condition.

Facts: A doctor rented space in a medical office building owned by a real estate corporation. The corporation sued the doctor for nonpayment of rent. The building's property management company notified the doctor that he had 60 days in which to vacate the space; otherwise, the building's property manager would evict him. When the doctor refused to move out of the building at the end of the 60-day period, the corporation asked the trial court for an eviction hearing.

Facts: A drugstore tenant signed a lease with the owner of a property that was about to be developed into a shopping center. The tenant and owner agreed that unless the center had been built by a specified date, either party would have the right to terminate the lease—for any reason. Because the owner was unable to obtain approval for a traffic signal to be installed at the center, it stopped developing the property and terminated the lease prior to the specified date.