Clark v. Erich

217 Cal. App. 2d 233, 31 Cal. Rptr. 628, 1963 Cal. App. LEXIS 2979
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 17, 1963
DocketCiv. 20886
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 217 Cal. App. 2d 233 (Clark v. Erich) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark v. Erich, 217 Cal. App. 2d 233, 31 Cal. Rptr. 628, 1963 Cal. App. LEXIS 2979 (Cal. Ct. App. 1963).

Opinion

AGEE, J.

Defendants appeal from a money judgment recovered by plaintiffs against them for rentals due under a lease of 2,230 acres of grazing land owned by plaintiffs. The validity of the judgment depends upon whether the lease was extended beyond its original term.

The lease was for 11 years, ending September 30, 1958, at an annual rental of $2,000. It contained an option to renew for an additional five years under the same terms. The rentals involved herein are for a period subsequent to the original termination date.

The federal government, as of October 1, 1955, took 1,566 acres of the subject land in an eminent domain action in fed *235 eral court. The compensation to be paid by the government was fixed by agreement of all parties at $150,000. The only issue in dispute at the trial was the apportionment of the award between the respondents, as owners, and the appellants, as lessees.

The court recognized appellants’ right to the “bonus value” of the lease, i.e., the market value of the possession and use of the 1,566 acres taken less the amount of rent attributable to such portion. This appraisal was the subject of conflicting expert testimony and the value was determined by the court to be $28,682.58.

This valuation was based upon the eight-year period from the date of the taking to the termination date of the lease, as extended by the five-year renewal option. The amount allowed for this element of compensation is not an issue herein.

The dispute before us relates to but does' not directly involve an additional allowance of $11,446.10 made by the court to appellants.

In partial taking cases, where the portion not taken remains susceptible of occupation, the lease remains in force as to the entire leased premises and the lessee must continue to pay the entire future rentals as and when called for by the lease. However, in such a situation, the lessee is entitled to offset this obligation by receiving, out of the total award, such sum as will be the present equivalent of the future rent attributable to the part taken. (City of Pasadena v. Porter, 201 Cal. 381, 387 [257 P. 526, 53 A.L.R. 679].) The parties agree that this is the law.

In arriving at this amount, the court treated the lease as having been extended for an additional five years by the exercise of the option. It therefore used said total period of eight years as the basis for its computation. The annual rental of the 1,566 acres taken was fixed at $1,700. The parties agreed that the coefficient to be applied to an eight-year period is 6.733. In accordance therewith, the court multiplied $1,700 by 6.733 and determined the total amount to be $11,446.10.

Appellants received this amount solely upon the basis that they were required to pay the rent, not only for the unexpired three years of the original period of the lease, but also for the. additional five years provided for by the option.

Appellants do not deny this. They contend, nevertheless, that they did not exercise the option and that their liability for rent-ceased at the termination of-the original-period of the Jeqse, If is obvious that the court found otherwise, If It- *236 had not, a coefficient of less than 3 would have been used and the amount allowed for the payment of future rentals would have been something less than $5,100. Thus, appellants seek to retain the difference between .the amount allowed and the amount which would have been allowed if the option had not been exercised and yet avoid the major portion of the very obligation which the award was intended to defray. Somewhat sardonically, appellants state: “When the Federal Judge’s opinion was published respondents should have appealed on the ground that part of the tenants’ award was for rent that might never be paid. ’ ’

The reason why respondents did not appeal in that action is obvious. The federal court had, by necessary implication, found that the option had been exercised. This implied finding is supported by the statements and representations made by appellants’ counsel during the trial of that action. The court acted and relied upon these representations.

There were only two questions of fact in dispute, (1) the “bonus value” of the lease, on the basis of eight years of its term unexpired, and (2) whether the annual rental to be allocated to the 1,566 acres should be $1,800 or $1,700. Item (1) was determined at an amount less than appellants’ appraisal and more than respondents’ appraisal. Item (2) was determined at the amount contended for by respondents. There was no cause for respondents to appeal.

The representations made by appellants’ counsel to the federal court with regard to the item of $11,446.10 are admissions against interest and constitute substantial evidence which supports that court’s implied finding that the option to renew had been exercised by appellants.

At the beginning of the trial, appellants' counsel made the following statement to the federal court: “We propose that the tenant has three items of damage. The first one is the rental which the tenant was obligated to pay, regardless of whether or not the property has been condemned. Under the terms of the lease which we will offer in evidence, he was obligated to pay $2,000 a year for a term extending, with the renewal period, to 1963, approximately eight years from the time of taking. In California, the. law-is that the tenant is still obligated to pay that, whether or not he is deprived of the use of that land by condemnation.

“The second item, of damage is the so-called bonus value Q< the lease, , , ,

*237 “The third item of damages is the loss to the tenant of fixtures or personal property, . . .
“We propose that the division of this award be determined by ascertaining these three items of damage to the tenant, subtracting the subtotal of these from the entire award, and thereby obtaining the portion due to the landowners.” (Italics ours.)

Thus, appellants asked the court to consider the renewal option as having been exercised by them and to award them immediate cash in return for their assumption of an obligation which, in their words, extended over a period of “ eight years [not three] from the time of taking.” This “first” item of damage is separate and distinct from the “second item of damage, ’ ’ which is the ‘ ‘ bonus value ’ ’ of the lease.

Regarding this second item, appellants’ counsel stated: “ [T]he tenant is entitled, as a part of this entire award, to the bonus value of that option, just as if the option had already been exercised, and the lease extended by that party.” The court then asked the following question: “Assuming that to be true, what about the first item? ... If I understand it, that is a more substantial item, or that is a substantial item, because I don’t know the precise number of acres here in Parcel 10. ’ ’ (This parcel, as later shown, is the 1,566 acres taken by the government and thereby withdrawn from the tenant’s use.)

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

RND Contractors, Inc. v. Super. Ct.
California Court of Appeal, 2025
Nelsen v. Workmen's Compesation Appeals Board
11 Cal. App. 3d 472 (California Court of Appeal, 1970)
Dix Box Co. v. Stone
244 Cal. App. 2d 69 (California Court of Appeal, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
217 Cal. App. 2d 233, 31 Cal. Rptr. 628, 1963 Cal. App. LEXIS 2979, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-erich-calctapp-1963.