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What Happened: A shopping center lease let the tenant pay reduced rent if an anchor closed and wasn’t replaced within 120 days. In July 2016, an anchor tenant, Sports Authority, closed and the landlord didn’t find a replacement for nearly three years. But the tenant forgot about the co-tenancy clause and continued to pay full rent for two-and-a-half years. When it finally realized its mistake in December 2018, it sought to take back the rent...
What Happened: After safely pulling off the stunt on several occasions, an office tenant who climbed onto his desk and used a broomstick to close hard-to-reach blinds fell to the floor and broke his spine. Blaming his injuries on the landlord’s failure to maintain the premises in a safe condition, he sued for medical bills and damages. When the court rejected his negligence claims, he appealed.
What Happened A new shopping center lease says that a restaurant tenant doesn’t have to pay rent until the landlord “delivers possession of the premi...
What Happened: After years of letting a pizzeria dump its trash in its alley, a neighboring property owner said no more and locked the gateway. At first, the pizzeria put the trash out front, but after local officials complained, it stored the trash inside. The resulting rat infestation forced the pizzeria to close down for several days ...
What Happened: When the tenant and surety didn’t show up for the eviction proceeding, the court awarded the landlord default judgment. The landlord then sent the tenant and surety notice to collect their personal property and disposed of the stuff when they didn’t respond after seven days. Only then did the tenant and surety reemerge to sue the landlord for conversion—that is, taking unlawful...
Section 7: [T]here shall be no allowance to Tenant for a diminution in rental value, and no liability on part of Landlord by reason of inconvenience, annoyance or injury to person(s), property or business arising from the making of any repairs, alterations, additions or improvements in or to any portion of the building or the premises or in or to the fixtures, appurtenances or equipment.
What Happened: A shopping center lease requires the anchor tenants, which are also partial owners, to pay a fixed part of the property’s real estate taxes, and allocates the remaining tax liability to the non-owner tenants proportionally on the basis of square footage leased. The problems began when one of the anchors, Sears, went out of business and the landlord allocated Sears’ tax liability among the non-anchor tenants, including a food s...
What Happened: The case began when a shopper tripped on the gap of a sidewalk outside a grocery store leased by Pathmark. Since the owner was now bankrupt, the victim’s case hinged on a single question: Was Pathmark, as tenant, liable for the defective sidewalk? Pathmark claimed that if there was any negligence, the owner was wholly responsible. The victim won Round 1, setting the stage for the appeal.
What Happened: To the owner, this was an open-and-shut case: The fashion store tenant it evicted owed unpaid rent. To the tenant, it was more complicated than that. The tenant contended that the owner committed constructive eviction by cutting off its electricity. The court sided with the owner, and the tenant appealed.
Decision: The New York court agreed that there was no constructive eviction and upheld summar...
What Happened: A landlord sued to evict a physician tenant for not paying rent. While acknowledging that she was five months in arrears, the tenant noted that she had been allowed to pay late two years earlier without being charged late fees and that the landlord had thus waived its right to timely rent. The court agreed and found the landlord liable for wrongful eviction.
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