Ohio Owner Must Mitigate Damages

A tenant moved out of its space six months before its lease was set to end, and it stopped paying rent. The owner didn't relet the space and sued the tenant for the unpaid rent. The tenant argued that the owner should have mitigated—that is, lessened—its damages by reletting the vacant space. The owner claimed that it wasn't required to mitigate its damages.

The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled that the owner was required to mitigate its damages. The court mentioned that although it hadn't previously addressed whether the duty to mitigate applied to commercial leases, it had to do so now. The court said that there's a national trend toward requiring owners of commercial properties to mitigate damages. The court opted to follow the national trend and concluded that, “[t]he duty to mitigate arises in all commercial leases of real property, just as it exists in all other contracts” [Frenchtown Square Partnership v. Lemstone, Inc.].