Fredman v. Sutliff & Case Co.

70 N.E.2d 222, 330 Ill. App. 119, 1946 Ill. App. LEXIS 198
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedDecember 12, 1946
DocketGen. No. 10,092
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 70 N.E.2d 222 (Fredman v. Sutliff & Case Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fredman v. Sutliff & Case Co., 70 N.E.2d 222, 330 Ill. App. 119, 1946 Ill. App. LEXIS 198 (Ill. Ct. App. 1946).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Justice Wolfe

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment entered by the circuit court of Peoria county in favor of defendant, Sutliff & Case Co., Inc., a corporation, in a proceeding involving the right to possession and damages for the wrongful detention of certain premises owned by the plaintiff, Harry Fredman, and leased to the defendant corporation.

The undisputed facts appearing from the pleadings and affidavits filed in support thereof, disclose that plaintiff is the owner of a store building purchased by warranty deed from defendant in June 1943, and that the plaintiff leased said premises to the defendant for the term of one year, from Oct. 1, 1943, to Oct. 1, 1944. The said lease contained a typewritten clause which provided:

“Provided that party of second part to start Oct. 1, 1943, is renewable from year to year by party of second part by letter of intention to do so, sixty days before expiration of each year term. However, either party hereto can cancel this lease by giving the other notice in writing 60 days before expiration of each yearly term.”

Defendant took possession of the premises under the lease and still retains possession, and has paid rent for the entire time.

On Oct. 30, 1945, defendant received a letter from the Fredman Bros. Furniture Co., stating in substance that the tenancy was' on a month to month basis, and that possession of the premises was demanded by plaintiff on or before Jan. 1, 1946. The defendant however, retained possession and continued to pay the monthly rental which was received and held by plaintiff. Plaintiff herein, seeks possession of the premises and double damages for the wrongful withholding of the premises by the defendant, as well as an additional $12,000 because plaintiff claims defendant knew that plaintiff had a renter for the premises who was willing to pay a substantially higher rental than defendant.

After the hearing on plaintiff’s and defendant’s motions for summary judgment, in which the foregoing facts were set forth by the respective affidavits of the parties, and prior to a decision by the court, plaintiff was permitted to file a supplemental affidavit. It was alleged therein that, in August 1945, when plaintiff failed to receive a notice of renewal from defendant, he assumed that defendant would vacate the premises at the end of the present yearly term. When defendant failed to do so, on Oct. 1, 1945, plaintiff contends that he thought there was a slight delay, and finally, when the check for the October rental, dated Oct. 6, 1945, came to his attention some 21 days after it was written, he thereupon, notified defendant to vacate the premises by Jan. 1,1946.

Plaintiff, moreover, alleges therein, that the delay in the receipt of the check was occasioned by the fact that it was sent to his store at 614 S. Adams St., and that he was at 324 S. Adams St., and that he has never cashed that check, nor the ones sent for the November and December rental.

The circuit court denied plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment, and granted defendant’s motion therefor, and held that defendant was entitled to possession of the premises.

The sole issue presented upon this appeal is whether the defendant corporation held the premises as a tenant from year to year, in which case it would be entitled to the 60 day notice of termination provided in sec. 5 of the Landlord and Tenant Act [Ill. Rev. Stat. 1945, ch. 80, par. 5; Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 72.05]; or whether defendant held the premises under the lease and was bound by the provision therein, to give notice of intention to renew the lease or otherwise forfeit rights to the premises.

The original lease under which defendant entered possession was for the term of one year, from Oct. 1, 1943, to Oct. 1, 1944. Unless this lease contained a legally operative provision for the renewal thereof, and was actually renewed by the parties, defendant’s holding over and payment of rent after the expiration of the original term, with the knowledge and acquiescence of the plaintiff, would constitute a tenancy from year to year. (Goldsborough v. Gable, 140 Ill. 269, 273.)

It is necessary, therefore, to consider the provision of the original lease and determine the legal effect of the aforementioned typewritten clause. It is obvious that a court would reform the provision to the extent of substituting the word “lease” for the words “party of the second part,” appearing in the first line, for the error is patent, and the intention of the parties is clear.

Even after such reformation, however, the provision is still legally inoperative, since the first clause thereof, is contradicted and rendered void by the second clause. The first clause provides that the lease is renewable by a “letter of intention to do so” submitted by defendant 60 days prior to the expiration of “each year term.” The second clause provides that the lease can be cancelled by either party by giving the other notice in writing 60 days before the expiration of each yearly term.

The implication of the first clause is that the lease expires unless renewed 60 days before Oct. 1, and the implication of the second clause is that the lease continues in operation for the next yearly term unless either party gives notice to cancel 60 days before Oct. 1. There is no more reason to give effect to the first clause, as plaintiff argues, and hold defendant responsible to give notice of intention to renew the lease in August, than to give effect to the second clause whereby plaintiff was under the obligation to give notice of cancellation of the lease in August. It is submitted, therefore, that this renewal clause was a legal nullity; and that the lease terminated by its own terms on Oct. 1, 1944; and that defendant held over under a tenancy from year to year created by law.

Notwithstanding this interpretation, however, even if the clause were construed as operative, and of legal effect, it is doubtful whether the conduct of the defendant and the plaintiff would have constituted a renewal of the lease for the year from Oct. 1, 1944, to Oct. 1, 1945.

Defendant gave no notice of renewal 60 days prior to the termination of the lease, and plaintiff gave no notice of cancellation. Defendant merely held over and paid rent, and plaintiff tacitly accepted such payment, and neither party had any discussion with reference to the renewal provision of the lease. Plaintiff contends, however, that this conduct constituted a renewal of the lease, and in support thereof, cites decisions from other jurisdictions, which are of interest but clearly not binding in matters of local interest, such as landlord and tenant, and one Illinois case, Anderson v. Dodsworth, 292 Ill. 335.

This case involved a provision in a lease for its extension for three different terms, and the issue was whether the tenant by holding over and paying rent extended the lease for the longer or the shorter terms. The court held that the tenant’s holding over would be construed as an election to extend the term of the lease for the shortest period named.

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Bluebook (online)
70 N.E.2d 222, 330 Ill. App. 119, 1946 Ill. App. LEXIS 198, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fredman-v-sutliff-case-co-illappct-1946.