Owner Not Entitled to Attorney's Fees

A tenant violated its lease by closing its store without the owner's permission. It took the owner 13 months to relet the space. So the owner sued the tenant for liquidated damages as well as for its attorney's fees.

A Wisconsin appeals court ruled that the owner was entitled to liquidated damages, but not attorney's fees. The lease said that the owner could only recover attorney's fees related to the owner's efforts to relet the space. But here the owner was trying to recover attorney's fees it incurred for suing over rent owed by the tenant and the validity of the liquidated damages clause, the court noted. Since these attorney's fees weren't related to the owner's attempt to relet the tenant's space, the owner wasn't entitled to recover them, the court said [Westhaven Assocs., Ltd. v. C.C. of Madison, Inc.].