What Happened: At the height of the pandemic, New York City adopted a law permanently voiding personal liability guarantees of commercial lease obligations arising between March 7, 2020, and June 30, 2021, and banning landlords from taking legal action to enforce those...
What Happened: A Utah shopping center leased property for use as a massage therapy center, even though the tenant didn’t have a license to provide those services in the state. Four years later, three customers claimed that the tenant sexually assaulted them during their...
What Happened: A shopping center landlord sued to evict the tenant in charge of operating the mall’s food court for multiple lease violations, including failure to maintain the premises in a clean and orderly manner. After a three-day trial, the court concluded that the...
What Happened: Six months after an executive recruiting agency moved into its new office, employees began experiencing rashes and congestion while at work, problems that eased as soon as they left the building. Dissatisfied with building management’s response to its...
What Happened: A medical tenant remained in possession and paid the landlord normal rent after its one-year lease term expired. The landlord accepted the rent payments and didn’t demand that the tenant leave. Six months later, the property suffered flood damage. The tenant...
What Happened: A pedestrian sues the store owner and landlord for negligence after tripping over allegedly defective cellar doors located on the sidewalk in front of the premises. The landlord asks to be let out of the suit under state laws relieving out-of-possession landlords...
What Happened: A high-end restaurant operator leased property on Holyoke Street in Harvard Square knowing that the university/landlord was planning to undertake a major, four-year construction project spanning an entire city block across the street. The blasting work began two...
What Happened: A landlord took a cosmetology school tenant and its guarantors to court for failing to pay rent in 2020 while government COVID-19 shutdown orders were in effect. The defendants raised the usual affirmative defenses including force majeure and frustration of...
What Happened: A medical tenant decided to remain in possession and continue paying rent after its lease expired. A few months later, Hurricane Irene blew through town and inflicted major damage, forcing the tenant to move out. The tenant sued to recover its security deposit;...
What Happened: A landlord terminated the month-to-month lease of a toy wholesaler. When the tenant refused to leave, the landlord filed a holdover lawsuit. After several failed attempts by the tenant to get the action dismissed or stayed, the case went to court, which ruled in...
What Happened: The owners of a hair salon sued their shopping center landlord for breach of lease, wrongful eviction, and other claims. They wanted a jury trial, but the landlord objected, citing the lease provision purporting to waive the tenants’ “right to a trial...
What Happened: A landlord promised to install fencing around a used car lot if the tenant renewed the lease. Relying on that promise, the tenant re-upped, but the landlord didn’t install the promised fencing. So, the tenant terminated the lease, stopped paying rent, and...
