Owner Loses

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Facts: A discount store rented space at a strip mall. The lease provided that the center’s owner would maintain the lighting in the common areas, including the area of the center behind the stores, which was used as a loading dock for merchandise to be brought into the tenant’s store. The owner also agreed to indemnify the tenant for claims arising from an unsafe condition on the premises caused by the owner’s maintenance failure.

Facts: An office building owner continued to accept rent from a tenant after its lease was over. The lease provided that the owner could sue the holdover tenant for liquidated damages if it failed to surrender the space when the term ended. Several months later, the owner sent a “Notice to Surrender and Pay Rent,” to the tenant, terminating the holdover tenancy and ordering it to move out. The owner also informed the tenant that he owed back rent, but didn’t provide a breakdown of the alleged charges.

Facts: A restaurant tenant rented space in a strip center. The entire property was 82,875 square feet. The “buildingfootprint” and the total leasable area was 21,415 square feet. The restaurant tenant leased 6,281 square feet of the property. In addition to base rent, the tenant was to pay a proportionate share of common area maintenance (CAM) charges.

Facts: An owner and a tenant disagreed about which party owned the outdoor advertising sign on top of the building. The owner asserted that the sign is an “improvement and appurtenance” to the building and therefore was conveyed to it when it bought the building. The tenant contends that the lease gives it ownership of the sign and the right to remove it at any time.

Facts: The employee of a fish market that rented the ground floor in a commercial building slipped and fell on ice on the sidewalk outside the store. He sued the owner of the building and the tenant. He asserted that the tenant and owner were both negligent by allowing the icy condition to exist and that they had actual notice and constructive notice of the hazardous condition. The tenant and owner each asked the court for a judgment in its favor without a trial.

Decision: A New York trial court denied the owner’s and tenant’s request.

Facts: A fast-food restaurant signed a five-year lease with the owner of a building that had been used previously for a similar restaurant. Under the lease, the owner represented and warranted to the tenant that there were no existing restrictions, building and zoning ordinances, or other laws or requirements of any governmental authority that would prevent the use of the premises for the tenant’s purposes. The lease also provided that any misrepresentation or breach of such warranty would entitle the tenant to terminate the lease.

Facts: For 30 years, a fitness center leased space in a shopping center under a series of leases. After a fire damaged the center, the center’s owner made some repairs and asked the tenant to resume its operations in the space. The tenant, however, claimed that the repairs were incomplete; that they had not been performed within the period required by the lease; and that the center was in violation of applicable fire and safety regulations.

Facts: A shopping center tenant signed a 10-year lease with a five-year extension option. Under the lease, the tenant had the right to renegotiate the terms of the extension period, including the rental rate. At the time that the tenant signed the lease, the center included several large tenants, including a national clothing department store.

Facts: A retail tenant’s shopping center lease included a “kickout” provision, allowing it to terminate the lease if its annual gross sales during the fifth year of the lease term didn’t exceed $3.5 million. To terminate the lease, the tenant was required to give the owner a written notice of termination within 120 days following the end of the fifth year of the term. If the tenant failed to deliver the notice according to that specification, it would lose its termination right.

Facts: The owner of a building used as a supermarket terminated its tenant's lease and ordered it to move out of the space because the tenant had allegedly “incurably” defaulted on the lease—that is, violated the lease in a way that couldn't be fixed—by failing to maintain adequate insurance and altering the space without the owner's permission.