Owner Wins

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Facts: After a tenant signed a lease for space it used as a convenience store, the property was sold and the lease was assigned to a new owner.

Facts: An employee was injured while working at a warehouse leased by his employer. The floor of the warehouse collapsed while the employee was stacking steel in a bay. The basement under the bay was rented to another tenant. The employee and the steel fell into the basement. The employee suffered significant injuries; a co-worker died as a result of the accident. The employee sued the owner. The owner asked the trial court for a decision in its favor w...

Facts: A restaurant tenant’s employee required surgery for a broken wrist that he suffered in a slip-and-fall accident on a spiral staircase, used to access the employee locker room. The employee claimed that the staircase was greasy, and that the steps were worn smooth. He sued the owner for his personal injuries, claiming that the owner was responsible for maintaining the staircase in a safe condition. The owner asked a trial court for a judgmen...

Facts: A shopping center tenant rented space to operate a nightclub. There was an unfinished office building across the street from the center, which the center’s owner told the tenant would be completed the following year. When the office building hadn’t been finished by then, the tenant reduced its rent payments, which were accepted by the owner, for several months in a row and sued the owner, asserting that criminal activity in the unfini...

Facts: A business owner slipped on a puddle of oil on the floor of the warehouse space he rented. He sued the trust that owned the property and the trustee (the defendants) for negligent maintenance of the premises and a jury trial was held. The jury ruled in his favor. The defendants asked the court for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), a practice whereby a judge may overrule the decision of a jury and reverse or amend its verdict. JNOV pe...

Facts: An appliance store leased a building and parking lot “as is” from the owner under a triple net (NNN) lease—that is, a lease in which a commercial tenant is responsible for maintaining the premises and for paying all utilities, taxes, and other charges associated with the property. The owner continued to occupy some of the building’s storage areas. A deliveryman for the tenant fell in a part of the parking lot wholly used a...

Facts: An employee of a truck rental company tenant sued the property’s owner for negligence, after the employee injured his back when he stepped into a hole in the floor of a tire “shed” that was on the property the owner leased to the tenant. The owner asserted that it owed no “duty of care” to the tenant’s employee, because the lease’s requirement that the owner maintain the property didn’t apply to out...

Facts: A real estate company rented a corner store and partial basement of a building for a 10-year lease term. The tenant paid $42,000 as a security deposit. Two guarantors also signed separate written guaranty agreements, guaranteeing full performance of the terms of the lease, including rent payment. Shortly after it moved into the space, the tenant breached the lease agreement by failing to pay its monthly rent as well as its additional rent. Conseq...

Facts: A women’s clothing manufacturing company rented space in an office building. The chief executive officer of the company signed the lease on behalf of the company, gave a security deposit, and executed a “good-guy” guaranty, personally guaranteeing that the company would perform all lease obligations while in actual possession of the premises. The tenant operated in the space for several years, but then asked the owner about the ...

Facts: A utility company signed a lease for an office building that would be constructed according to a building plan between it and the owner. The lease would commence when the building was “substantially complete,” meaning that the building had been constructed according to the agreed-upon plan, with the exception of only minor items that needed repair on a “punch list” that the tenant was responsible for providing after it inspected the...