Owner Needn't Offer Abandoned Space at Any Price to Lessen Its Damages

A tenant defaulted on its lease by abandoning its space four months before its lease expired. The owner promptly listed the space with a major commercial real estate broker. The advertised price of the space was the same price advertised for that space for the past seven years. The owner found a new tenant only after the former tenant's lease expired. The owner sued the former tenant for damages caused by its default. The former tenant argued that the owner didn't properly “mitigate—that is, take steps to lessen—its damages because it didn't offer the space for any price a prospective tenant would have been willing to pay. The owner asked the court to dismiss that argument.

The Ohio appeals court dismissed the former tenant's argument and ruled that the owner had properly mitigated its damages. The court noted that the owner used a reputable broker to advertise the space as soon as it learned the tenant intended to abandon its space. The court said the owner wasn't required to offer the space at any price to meet its duty to mitigate. Rather, it was required only to use “reasonable efforts” to relet the space. “Reasonable efforts occurred in this case,” said the court [Thomas & Kline Realty Co. v. Rogers].