Gordon Investment Co. v. Jones

227 P.2d 336, 123 Colo. 253, 1951 Colo. LEXIS 258
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedJanuary 29, 1951
Docket16317
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 227 P.2d 336 (Gordon Investment Co. v. Jones) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gordon Investment Co. v. Jones, 227 P.2d 336, 123 Colo. 253, 1951 Colo. LEXIS 258 (Colo. 1951).

Opinion

*255 Mr. Justice Moore

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiffs in error will hereinafter be referred to by n.ame, and defendant in error, plaintiff below, will be referred to as plaintiff.

• Plaintiff was the owner of real estate in the city of Sterling, Colorado, having acquired title to the same subsequent to the execution of a lease entered into between her grantor and defendant, The Gordon Investment Company. Upon purchase of the real estate, all the rights of the original lessor were assigned to plaintiff. The said lease was dated December 4, 1944; was for an original term- of five years, and contained an option to renew for an additional five years. The action was commenced January 9, 1949, and during the pendency thereof The Gordon Burton Investment Company, to whom the lease had been assigned by the original lessee, gave notice that it exercised the option to renew the lease for the additional period of time.

Plaintiff sought to terminate the lease upon the ground that The Gordon Investment Company had sublet the premises without written consent of the lessor, in violation of the provisions of the lease. The said instrument contained a provision that the tenant would not “underlet said premises, or any part thereof, or assign this lease,” without the written consent of the lessor, and the lease further provided that the lessor could elect to “declare said term ended” upon breach of any covenant contained in the lease. Plaintiff alleged that she elected to terminate the tenancy as soon as she learned of the alleged subletting of the property by the original lessee.

The Gordon Investment Company filed its motion to dismiss, and motion for change of venue, both of which were overruled. Thereafter, answer and cross complaint were filed by said defendants the material allegations of which are, that The Gordon Investment Company, on February 1, 1946, had assigned the lease to the Gordon *256 Burton Investment Company, a corporation; that said assignee paid the rent upon said premises at all times subsequent to the date of said assignment to the assignor of the plaintiff, which rent was accepted without objection of any kind; and that the prohibition against subletting the premises, which was included in the printed part of the lease, was “superseded” by a typewritten paragraph which included the following: “Lessee is hereby given the right to assign this lease for the continuation of the same kind of business for which the premises are leased to lessee, but no assignment of this lease shall relieve or release the lessee or any assignee from any of the obligations or responsibilities of this lease.” Said defendant further alleged that, “one Garfield is occupying the premises as a general mercantile business through an arrangement with the Gordon Burton Investment Company.”

The Gordon Investment Company asked judgment for $2,500.00 damages alleged to have been sustained because plaintiff “has deliberately tried to obtain possession of said premises unlawfully and has harassed these defendants.” There was attached to the answer and cross complaint a copy of the lease, together with can-celled checks covering rental payments made by the Gordon Burton Investment Company.

.Upon application of plaintiff, Howard Garfield was made a third party defendant. He filed an answer to the third party complaint, which complaint and answer placed- in issue the rights of the parties to immediate possession of the real estate in question. Defendants filed their motion for summary judgment, which motion was overruled.

The trial court found: “That there has been a violation and breach of the lease in subleasing, and it is accordingly adjudged and decreed that the rights of the defendants in this action terminated by reason of their failure to observe the. clauses and provisions in the lease under which they held.”

*257 The controlling facts established on the trial are that there was a provision in the original lease for a rental of $150.00 per month. The original lessee, a partnership, assigned the lease to the Gordon Burton Investment Company, a corporation, on February 1, 1946. Without notice to plaintiff or her assignor, the Gordon Burton Investment Company executed the following instrument on November 23, 1948: “The Gordon Burton Investment Company, a Corporation as Assignee to a lease on the two first-floor store-rooms of the Cole Hotel Building in Sterling, Colorado, will execute a sub-lease to Howard S. Garfield of Sterling, Colorado, with all the provisions and privileges granted in a lease dated December 4, 1944, between Hazel Strauss and Gordon Investment Company, a co-partnership. The monthly rental shall be $200.00 payable in advance, starting December 1, 1948.”

Howard S. Garfield took possession on or about December 1, 1948, and thereafter paid $200.00 per month rent to the Gordon Burton Investment Company. The latter company at all times paid, or offered to pay, the $150.00 per month rental under the terms of the original lease. After taking possession, Garfield sublet a portion of the premises to a Mr. Channer who operated a music store. This arrangement continued for two weeks and Channer paid a stipulated rental to Garfield.

On April 13, 1949, an instrument entitled “Sub-Lease” was executed by Howard Garfield, under which one Joe Fee became the tenant of a portion of the premises at a rental of $150.00 per month payable to the said Garfield. This instrument was admitted in evidence without objection and the parties stipulated during the trial that at the time of the bringing of the suit the premises were in the possession of Howard Garfield, and that upon the date of the trial, “a portion of said premises is in the possession of one Joe Fee.”

Defendants seek reversal upon three grounds, to wit: (1) Defendants’ motion to dismiss should have been granted. (2) The court erred in denying defendants’ mo *258 tion for change of venue. (3) The court erred in holding that a breach of any covenants in the lease had been established by plaintiff, resulting in a right in the plaintiff to terminate the tenancy.

Questions to be Determined.

First: Did the trial court err in overruling defendants’ motion to dismiss?

The answer is “no.” In the motion to dismiss, defendants allege matters of fact not appearing in the complaint, and, on the assumption that these extraneous facts are properly established by recitation thereof in the motion, it asks a dismissal of the action. A motion to dismiss is not the proper pleading for use in creating issues of fact. The only facts proper for the consideration of the court on the hearing of such a motion are those alleged in the complaint, and a defendant cannot add to or detract from these facts by a motion to dismiss.

In the present case, the motion to dismiss contains the following statement: “That the said complaint is not in accordance to the 1935 Colorado Statutes Annotated, and was filed in violation thereof, and contrary to the said statutes in such case made and provided.” This statement is wholly insufficient to inform the court concerning the nature of the ground upon which the dismissal was sought. Rule 7 C(l), R.C.P.

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Bluebook (online)
227 P.2d 336, 123 Colo. 253, 1951 Colo. LEXIS 258, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gordon-investment-co-v-jones-colo-1951.