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What Happened: At first it looked as though the tenant had found a buyer for his dental practice to whom it would assign the lease just as it was expiring on Dec. 31, 2019. But the deal fell through, and the tenant sent the landlord an email in February notifying it of his decision not to renew the lease. Although the dentist had moved out of the space in December, he left behind filing cabinets, chairs, TV monitors, computers, a telephone, and other pe...

What Happened: The COVID-19 pandemic forced the owner of an iconic cinema in Minneapolis to shut down and default on its lease with six years left in the term. The landlord sued for liquidated damages of $1.8 million, including $364,212 in unpaid rent and $1,444,258 representing the present value of future rent payments. The operative lease language was the clause allowing the landlord to:

What Happened: Eighteen months after signing a five-year lease, a rug store went into liquidation, stopped paying rent, and abandoned the premises. The landlord then divided the space into two separate units, leasing one to another rug store and the other to a bath floor décor shop.

What Happened: A tenant leased property on a pair of shopping center outlots to operate restaurants. The ground lease required the tenant to pay a pro-rata share of the CAM costs the landlord incurred to keep the common areas in good repair. The landlord sold the property to a new owner who notified and demanded that the tenant pay outstanding balances due on both outlots or face eviction. The tenant didn’t pay, and the landlord evicted it.

What Happened: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Los Angeles County imposed a temporary moratorium on residential and commercial evictions. A commercial landlord that had leased property to an auto repair tenant that was no longer paying rent due to COVID sued the county, claiming that the moratorium impaired his lease in violation of the Contracts Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bans states, counties, municipalities, and other local governments fr...

What Happened: A restaurant tenant sold its business to another operator and her brother, the Marcials, who signed a 10-year lease with the landlord to continue operating the restaurant and bar from its current location at the mall. Problems with the transaction arose, and the original tenant ended up suing the landlord and Marcials for damages. But to get the jury trial it wanted, the tenant had to contend with the following language contained in its o...

What Happened: A landlord bound by a no-compete clause with Verizon Wireless leased retail property to a vape shop for the “sole purpose of a vape, tobacco, clothing, computer repair” operation. The lease also required the tenant to refrain from competing with Verizon “or any other phone-related services.”

What Happened: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a landlord agreed to reduce a retail tenant’s rent from $7,147 to $3,500. Signed in November 2020, the agreement was retroactive to May 2020 to March 2021, at which time rent would revert back to the original amount. However, the tenant continued to pay the reduced rent from April 1, 2021, through March 1, 2022. The landlord sent the tenant a notice of default after each monthly $3,500 check rec...

What Happened: A nonprofit ran a multi-day music festival on recreational space it leased from the city. Two attendees who purchased tickets to the event were denied entry because they were carrying guns in violation of music festival rules banning attendees from having weapons while inside the venue. After arguing briefly with police, they left the grounds.

What Happened: After signing a 10-year lease with a health clinic, a landlord put the property on the market for sale as “net lease investment,” meaning there was a tenant already in place. The tenant then defaulted just three years into the lease. Invoking the acceleration clause, the landlord sued for the seven years of rent remaining. The landlord then declined two below-asking price offers on the property. The tenant claimed that in reje...