Owner Violated Drug Store Tenant's Exclusive

An owner agreed to give an exclusive right to a tenant to operate a drug store and a drug store department at the center. Later, a supermarket tenant decided to open a drug store department. The drug store tenant sued the owner for violating its exclusive. The owner argued that the exclusive use clause barred the owner only from signing new leases with other drug store tenants and tenants that operated drug store departments. Because the supermarket tenant's lease wasn't new (it predated the drug store tenant's lease), the owner hadn't violated the exclusive.

A Pennsylvania appeals court ruled that the owner had violated the drug store tenant's exclusive. The court said it was irrelevant that the supermarket tenant's lease predated the drug store tenant's lease. The language in the exclusive was unambiguous, and the owner had promised in it not to let any other tenant operate a drug store or drug department at the center, the court said. By letting the supermarket tenant open a drug department, the owner violated that promise [Eckerd Corp. v. Glen Eagle Retail, L.P.].