What Happened: A clothing retailer cited the force majeure clause in its leases as an excuse for not paying rent during the COVID-19 shutdown months of April and May 2020. Not so fast, responded the landlord, noting that the clause:
What Happened: Technically, the landlord had a perfectly valid case to evict. But there was also a clear explanation why Bed Bath & Beyond (BB&B) didn’t pay its late rent until after the 10-day cure notice period expired. Its corporate headquarters was closed due...
What Happened: From March to October, a steakhouse couldn’t come up with its monthly rent because of the COVID-19 public health orders restricting indoor dining, the meat and potatoes of its business. But the steakhouse tried its best to be a faithful tenant. First, it...
What Happened: A lease between a shopping center and hair salon banned the landlord from renting to a competing business. The landlord then acquired an adjacent, nearly identical building sharing the same parking lot located only 50 yards away and leased part of it to another...
What Happened: New York City has a law that bans commercial landlords from engaging in “harassment” to force tenants to vacate or waive lease rights via illegal threat of force or threats based on race, creed, color, age, etc. At the height of the first wave of the...
What Happened: A landlord who had just bought the property and was eager to lease it for a higher rent approached the current gas station tenant about a potential buyout. The negotiations proved unsuccessful. Less than three months later, the landlord tried to evict the tenant...
What Happened: Who won the legal showdown between the Florida mall and the retail tenant that cited the force majeure clause of its lease as an excuse not to pay rent in May due to business losses resulting from government COVID-19 shutdown orders? At stake was more than pride....
What Happened: A pharmaceutical company used the warehouse it sublet to store its drug products. But the warehouse sprinkler system went haywire and inflicted $265,110 in damage to the products. The company sued the landlord and tenant. Naturally, each side blamed the other and...
What Happened: Bed Bath & Beyond (BB&B) didn’t provide the necessary sales records to verify its percentage rent payments, concluded the landlord’s auditor in the spring of 2017. The landlord didn’t talk to BB&B or otherwise follow up on the audit....
What Happened: It was a long running dispute: The landlord thought the tenant owed Terminal Usage Fees; the tenant disagreed. In a civil society, there are courts to resolve these types of disputes. But instead of filing a lawsuit, the landlord took matters into its own hands by...
What Happened: While laws banning landlords from harassing tenants are common in residential settings, New York is one of the few states that extends this protection to commercial tenants. A small landscaping business owner claimed that her landlord crossed the line by filing...
