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What Happened: After finding it liable for lease violations, a court ordered a restaurant tenant and its guarantors to pay damages to the shopping center landlord. It also held them jointly and severally liable for the nearly $40,000 in attorneys’ fees the landlord incurred in bringing the underlying lawsuit, based on language contained in the lease and guaranty agreements. The tenant and guarantors appealed the award of attorneys’ fees.
What Happened: In 2019, a tenant signed a six-and-a-half-year lease on property to be used solely “for the purpose of operating a pet and cat boarding facility” and banning other uses without the landlord’s prior written consent. In operating the business, the tenant occasionally performed bathing and nail-trimming services for boarded dogs. It also began offering day care for dogs in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, one of the tenant’s employees purchased the company and took over the business.
What Happened: An office tenant didn’t exercise its renewal option on a lease that expired in April 2022. However, the tenant continued to pay, and the landlord continued to accept rent after the expiration date. A few months later, when the tenant ran into problems that interfered with his ability to conduct business in the office, he sued the landlord for breach of the implied warranty of liability and other alleged lease violations.
What Happened: A tenant leased the ground-floor store in a building for use as “a first-class convenience shop doing business as ‘AM PM Market’.” Just over a year into the 10-year lease, the landlord’s property manager discovered that a company called Bing Bong was in possession of the space and that it was selling cannabis. The manager set about to gather evidence against Bing Bong, using his iPhone to take pictures of the store’s interior and exterior and purchasing marijuana cigarettes infused with hashish oil.
What Happened: Wracked by COVID-19 financial struggles, a restaurant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while continuing to operate its restaurant in Chicago’s prestigious Magnificent Mile District as a debtor-in-possession with hopes of assuming the lease after being discharged. But having entered into a series of forbearance agreements and still being owed about $1.3 million in rent, the landlord had serious misgivings about the tenant’s post-bankruptcy prospects and wanted the property back.
What Happened: After receiving a notice to file claim from a contractor who didn’t get paid for fire prevention work performed on a Boston Market restaurant, the landlord notified the tenant leasing the property that it was in default of the lease and gave it 30 days to cure. The tenant ignored the notice. As a result, the lien was recorded. So, the landlord terminated the lease and sued the tenant for unpaid rent and other damages. Despite being validly served, the tenant didn’t respond to the complaint while remaining in possession of the property.
What Happened: A shopping center sent an email asking a restaurant tenant to renew its lease at an increased rent. The tenant signed the attached amended lease without reading it. Five years later, it vacated the property and stopped paying rent. The landlord served the tenant with a notice of abandonment and sued for unpaid rent. The tenant, a gentleman from Asia who considered the landlord to be “a person of trust,” claimed he had been taken advantage of. When I signed the renewal, I just assumed it was on the same terms as the original lease, he argued.
What Happened: The landlord sued a dry-cleaning tenant for nearly $200,000 in damages, including $46,733 in unpaid rent that accrued up to the time the tenant vacated. It also went after the good guy guarantor that “unconditionally, irrevocably and as a primary obligor” guaranteed the tenant’s “full and faithful performance and observance” of the lease terms. The trial court rejected the tenant’s COVID-19 force majeure, frustration of purpose, and other defenses and awarded the landlord summary judgment.
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 personal items. So, the landlord billed him $49,419 in holdover rent. When the tenant refused to pay, the landlord sued.
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:
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