Tenant Didn't Have Exclusive to Sell Specialty Coffees

A tenant signed a lease to operate a coffee shop in a food court located on the first floor of a university's student center. The university later rented space in other parts of the student center to other shops that sold coffee products similar to the tenant's. Frustrated by the competition, the tenant stopped paying rent.

The university sued the tenant for violating the lease. The tenant argued that the university violated the lease by letting other shops in the student center sell specialty coffees.

An Ohio court ruled that the lease didn't give the tenant the exclusive right to sell specialty coffees throughout the student center. Although the lease said that “Competition between like products among Shops will be strongly discouraged,” the court said that the word “Shops” referred only to the shops in the food court—not to shops in other parts of the student center.

The court noted that if the tenant had wanted an exclusive right to sell specialty coffee throughout the student center, it should have said so in the lease [Kent State Univ. v. University Coffee House, Inc.].