13 Must Reads for the CRE Industry Today (March 3, 2021) An infrastructure bill is likely to cause challenges for President Biden, according to The New York Times. The Wall Street Journal looks at a company that tries to turn home rental tenants into homeowners. These are among today’s must reads from around the commercial real estate industry.
After Stimulus, Biden to Tackle Another Politically Tricky Issue: Infrastructure “Unless the parties can agree on how to fund an infrastructure plan, Mr. Biden might have to try to push through another sprawling spending package with only Democratic votes. The task could prove exceptionally difficult given the competing pressures the president will face from centrists and progressives in his party and the absence of a pandemic emergency to help fuse those factions in support of the bill.” (
COVID-19 Real Estate: Mass Court on Commercial Tenant s Obligation to Pay Rent natlawreview.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from natlawreview.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Friday, February 26, 2021
Commercial tenants who are unable to pay their rent as a result of COVID-19 shutdown and capacity-limit orders have, thus far, found little relief from courts, who have by and large rejected their common law defenses seeking a discharge of lease obligations. One recent Massachusetts case, however, sides with a commercial tenant, albeit under narrow circumstances, approving of the often-unsuccessful “frustration of purpose” defense.
In
UMNV 205-207 Newbury, LLC v. Caffé Nero Americas Inc., pending in Massachusetts Superior Court, the defendant tenant Caffé Nero could not make its rent payments after Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker barred all restaurants in Massachusetts from allowing on-premises dining. In a lawsuit for damages filed by landlord UMNV, Caffé Nero argued that its rental payment obligations should be discharged under the “frustration of purpose” doctrine, which excuses a party from performing contractual obligation
Highlights
In its Business Litigation Session, the Massachusetts Superior Court granted partial summary judgment in favor of a commercial tenant café, holding that its payment obligations were discharged for the period of time when on-premises consumption of food and beverages was prohibited due to Gov. Charlie Baker s COVID-19 orders.
Relying on an express lease provision limiting the tenant s use of the premises to the operation of a café, and interpreting the lease as not allocating the risk of a global viral pandemic coming to Massachusetts and leading to a government order shutting down the entire restaurant industry, the court held that the tenant s performance was excused by the common-law defense of frustration of purpose.
A Massachusetts Superior Court judge recently ruled that the doctrine of frustration of purpose excused Caffè Nero, a high-end coffee shop, from paying rent while its business was.