What Happened: A childcare center tenant that paid base rent each month didn’t pay its share of the property tax and utility bills or obtain the required insurance. So, six months into the lease, the landlord served the tenant with an eviction notice. The tenants finally got some insurance a month later, but the landlord pressed forward with the eviction suit. While acknowledging the breaches, the tenant claimed they weren’t material; it also argued that there was no case for eviction because the landlord didn’t prove that it suffered any damages as a result of the violations. The court granted the eviction, and the tenant appealed. 

Ruling: The Minnesota court rejected the appeal.

Reasoning: While failure to prove damages resulting from a breach comes into play when a landlord sues for money damages, the landlord in this case was suing only to evict. And as in all states, a commercial tenant’s breach of a material lease obligation is grounds for eviction in Minnesota. Accordingly, a landlord seeking eviction doesn’t have to prove damages. All it has to show is that the tenant committed a material breach. There was no basis for finding that the lower court was wrong in concluding that the tenant’s failure to get insurance and pay tax and utilities were, in fact, material breaches.

• 515 W. Lake LLC v. Ikram Childcare Ctr. LLC, 2025 Minn. App. Unpub. LEXIS 201