Procedural Slips Doom Tenant’s Contract Claims Against Landlord

 What Happened:   A tanning salon tenant sued its landlord for breach of contract but listed the wrong corporate name. Before the tenant could file an amended suit with the landlord’s proper corporate name, the landlord stole the march by filing its own eviction case in the same court. The court gave the tenant a chance to file an answer listing its breach of contract counterclaims. But instead of counterclaims, the tenant listed legal defenses against the eviction. Only after the court sided with the landlord on eviction, did the tenants finally assert their counterclaims, but by then it was too late.  

Decision: The tenant had forfeited its counterclaims, the Ohio appeals court confirmed.

Reasoning: Under Ohio law, all claims arising out of the same transaction must be brought in the same proceeding. In this case, the transaction was the lease and the claims included the tenant’s counterclaims against the landlord. Since the tenants didn’t assert those counterclaims against the landlord as part of the eviction case, they couldn’t do so after the eviction was decided, the court concluded.

• Soliel Tans, L.L.C. v. Timber Bentley Coe, L.L.C.: 2019-Ohio-4889, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 4926