Owner Wins

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Facts: A garment manufacturer tenant signed a lease for the seventh-floor of a building. The tenant and owner acknowledged that because the building's elevator was undergoing renovations, it might not be available for service at the start of the lease term. To account for the possible delay, the tenant and owner included in the lease a secondary commencement date that the tenant could wait until to move into the space.

Facts: A shoe store tenant signed a 10-year lease with a mall. Under the lease, the tenant was required to pay minimum monthly rent plus 5 percent of its annual gross sales over $1.1 million. A “kickout” provision in the lease allowed the tenant to terminate it early if the gross sales did not exceed that amount in the fifth year of the lease.

Facts: A restaurant that specialized in tea and tea-related merchandise rented space in a building from an out-of-possession owner that had a right under the lease to access the premises for making structural repairs. Prior to the restaurant's tenancy, there had been no service counter or way to access the basement from inside the space. The restaurant tenant paid to construct a service counter with a trapdoor hatch behind it leading to the basement. The service counter and trapdoor were approved by the local building department.

Facts: A restaurant customer was injured when he tripped and fell on a defective sidewalk abutting the restaurant. The property on which the restaurant was located was owned by a realty company that leased the space to it under a lease agreement and a rider to the lease agreement.

Facts: An owner sued a tenant for breaching its two leases after the tenant abandoned both of the owner's buildings that it rented and refused to pay the remaining rent due under the leases. After the tenant failed to appear at two summary dispossess proceedings for nonpayment of rent, the court ruled in favor of the owner, which established that the tenant had breached the leases. However, the court denied the owner's request for a judgment in its favor without a trial as to the tenant's liability for breaching the leases.

Facts: A tenant leased space in a commercial building for its manufacturing company. The lease contained an option to buy the property at any time during the tenancy for $350,000. The option also provided that the closing of title was to take place within 90 days of the tenant's notice to exercise the option.

The tenant notified the owners via certified mail, as required by the terms of the option, that he wanted to purchase the property in an all-cash transaction. However, the owners refused to cooperate with the tenant in scheduling a closing of title.

Facts: A woman slipped and fell on a large patch of ice in a municipal parking lot while walking to her car. The ice patch had formed as a result of water running downgrade from melting snow piled near the parked cars, and then freezing.

The woman sued the township for negligence, arguing that it had not properly instructed its snowplow driver as to where in the municipal lot he should put plowed snow so that any runoff wouldn't form ice patches.

Facts: Two owners of a shopping center alleged that a tenant defaulted on the lease because she allowed the property to fall into a deteriorated condition. The tenant refused to relinquish the premises after the termination of the lease, and the owners were forced to file an “unlawful detainer action” to reclaim the property. The trial court ruled that the tenant had not broken the lease, because, according to it, the tenant had taken reasonable care of the shopping center. The owners appealed.

Facts: A tenant operated her floral shop out of a shopping center under a three-year lease with the center's owner. After another owner bought the shopping center, the tenant agreed to extend her lease by five years. The lease extension agreement stated that the original lease would “remain in full force and effect” for the remainder of the lease.

Facts: The lease between a family shoe store and a mall owner included a “competing business” provision under which the owner was prohibited from leasing to any other shoe stores substantially similar to and/or competitive with the tenant. This included other “family” shoe stores. If the owner breached the provision, the tenant could terminate the lease with 30 days notice or continue to operate its store in accordance with all the terms and conditions of the lease.