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It’s A Rule: A Good Rant Is Cathartic
PrintCan you make a list of the institutions or people who employ “Make ‘em up as you go along” rules? To get the thinking process going, try bank tellers or low-level government employees. E.g.:...
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Are Waivers Enforceable?
PrintAre waivers enforceable? It depends. How unsatisfying is that answer? Generally speaking, absent duress or coercion, parties can waive what would otherwise be their right. How does one know if...
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What Is A “Reasonable Time”?
PrintWhat is a “reasonable time” for something to happen or to get done? Do we ask this question of ourselves when we use that phraseology in our leases and other agreements? We can’t avoid using...
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Is The Next Landlord Liable For The Brokerage Commission?
PrintWe’ve always been a little murky as to whether a successor landlord always becomes obligated to pay renewal commissions to the original broker responsible for the presence of an existing tenant....
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Consent Expressly Given – A New Look
PrintSometimes a party has the right to withhold its consent when the other party requires that party’s consent. And, sometimes the right to deny consent is desired to be absolute and unconditional. In...
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Who Knew Purchase Options Could Be So Complicated?
PrintWe don’t know if there are more ways to write a purchase option in a lease “wrong” than right,” but we do know opportunities abound. Here are a couple of examples. The first is based on a...
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Purchase Rights And Poison Pills
PrintThere is so much to say about purchase rights: straightforward ones, rights of first refusal, rights of first offer, rights of last offer, and rights of first notice). There is so little time to...
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Who Wrote Your Lease, Loan Agreement, Or Other Document?
Print“A committee is a cul-de-sac into which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled” — Sir Barnett Cocks. Much the same can be said about the documents we read and, sadly, write. Sir Cocks didn’t...
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What’s In A Name When It Comes To Sending An Extension Notice?
PrintWe just looked at a court decision about a lease renewal notice and can’t make up our mind what we think about the result or about the wisdom of the issue having been litigated in the first place....
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Maybe A Certificate Of Insurance Is Actually Worth Something
PrintBy now, almost everyone knows that an Acord Certificate of Insurance isn’t worth the paper it is printed on. [Click HERE if you need to see why they think so.] Why, however, “almost”? Who doesn’t...
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Don’t Believe What I Told You Clauses
PrintHere’s a story with a few different lessons. One aspect of it won’t be of great utility to our readers, so we’ll get it out of the way right now. The tenant in this story appeared to sign a lease...
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Zero-Based Thinking And Our Leases
PrintRecently, a 7- year old asked us a couple of questions. The first was: “How old will you have to be to drive a self-driving car?” The second was: “Will you need a driver’s license.” Our immediate,...
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Two Lease Guarantees Gone Awry
PrintWe wanted to a “hit and run” this week based on what we think is a peculiar and wrong court decision about language in a personal guaranty. Then, we came across a second court decision concerning...
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Knowledge Is Power. Get Some.
PrintThere is a story about a brilliant legal scholar who, after penning an outstanding legal analysis, would turn it over to his students for review and editing. He was asked why he would have young...
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Why? Why Not?
PrintMany have a tradition of making (and breaking) resolutions at this time of year. In fact, many have a tradition of making (and breaking) the same resolutions every year. So, why not try a new one...
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Read It Or Lose It, Or How Access Was Lost
PrintYou don’t have to be in the retail property industry for very long before you first come across an access agreement. After all, not all properties are sitting right out there on a prime highway. A...
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Words Are The Skin Of A Living Thought
Print“A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged; it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.”...
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When Will I Hear Back From You?
PrintTo beat a dead horse is to “waste effort on something when there is no chance of succeeding.” A memorial service for today’s effort will be announced shortly. We’ve written this before: what has...
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The Law Is Not Always Intuitive; Avoid Learning It At Your Own Peril
PrintOften, we come across a court decision based on a narrow set of facts and, thus, limited in its effect. The court’s analysis and the case’s result is primarily of interest to the involved parties...
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Too Wordy To Be Enforceable?
PrintThere are lessons to be learned by looking outside of our own field of interest. That was our thinking when we saw a decision out of a New Jersey appellate court last Tuesday. It involved how a...
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