Oak Park Development Co. v. Snyder Bros. of Minnesota, Inc.

499 N.W.2d 500, 1993 Minn. App. LEXIS 440, 1993 WL 128828
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedApril 27, 1993
DocketC3-92-1617
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 499 N.W.2d 500 (Oak Park Development Co. v. Snyder Bros. of Minnesota, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oak Park Development Co. v. Snyder Bros. of Minnesota, Inc., 499 N.W.2d 500, 1993 Minn. App. LEXIS 440, 1993 WL 128828 (Mich. Ct. App. 1993).

Opinion

OPINION

AMUNDSON, Judge.

Appellants, a shopping mall developer and a building contractor, brought this action alleging respondent tenant’s delay in subordinating its lease to the mortgage on the property caused the developer to lose a new anchor tenant and the contractor to lose a contract for the construction of the *502 new addition. Appellants challenge the trial court’s grant of summary judgment for respondents on claims for breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, tortious interference with contractual relations and tor-tious interference with prospective economic advantage. We affirm.

FACTS

Appellant Oak Park Development, Inc. 1 (Oak Park) owned the St. Croix Mall in Stillwater, Minnesota. Respondent Snyder Brothers of Minnesota, Inc. (Snyder Brothers) was a tenant in the mall. Article 11 of their lease required Snyder Brothers to subordinate its lease to any mortgage on the property. Specifically, Article 11 provided:

Landlord [Oak Park] reserves the right to subordinate this lease at all times to the lien of any mortgage, mortgages, trust deed or trust deeds now or hereafter placed upon the premises, and Tenant [Snyder Brothers] covenants and agrees to execute and deliver, upon demand, such further instruments subordinating this lease to the lien of any such mortgage, mortgages, trust deed or trust deeds as shall be desired by Landlord, or any proposed mortgagees or trustees under trust deeds, upon condition that at such time as any subordination hereunder is requested, Landlord shall furnish Tenant evidence that Tenant shall have the right to remain in possession of the premises under the terms of this lease.

(Emphasis added.)

Oak Park planned a mall expansion and on March 20, 1986, entered into a lease with the department store G.F. Herber-ger’s, Inc. (Herberger’s) to become an anchor tenant. As conditions precedent, Oak Park needed to secure financing and begin construction by September 20,1986. These conditions were not met and, by the lease terms, the lease became terminable at will by either party. Nonetheless, Oak Park continued towards its goal of opening the store.

Oak Park attempted to secure financing through the financial services company Miller & Schroeder, Inc. The Herberger’s store was to be financed through a bond issue secured by a first mortgage on the land and building. Timing was critical, as the Miller & Schroeder financing had to close before the bond proceeds could be received.

To secure financing, Miller & Schroeder required all mall tenants to provide a signed agreement subordinating their interest to Miller & Schroeder’s mortgage. Miller & Schroeder provided a standard form subordination agreement which Oak Park forwarded to all the mall tenants on August 11, 1987. All tenants except Snyder Brothers returned signed subordination agreements within three days. On August 14, 1987, Oak Park sent Snyder Brothers a proposed Fourth Lease Rider extending the termination date of the Oak Park/Snyder Brothers lease to April 30, 1990.

When Snyder Brothers’ counsel, Eugene Heck, received the subordination agreement, he discovered some of the language therein was factually incorrect and that language needed to be added to protect Snyder Brothers’ rights under a previous settlement agreement. 2 Having noted these deficiencies, Snyder Brothers returned a signed subordination agreement on August 18, 1987 which reinstated Snyder Brothers’ right to offset rents and also corrected other problem areas. This subordination agreement, however, was unacceptable to Miller & Schroeder. Since the rents at the mall were security for the Miller & Schroeder mortgage, Miller & Schroeder did not want to incur the risk *503 that Snyder Brothers would exercise its right of rent offset.

On August 25, 1987, this problem was resolved by Oak Park agreeing to pay Snyder Brothers a lump sum payment to satisfy the settlement agreement. Miller and Schroeder then contacted Heck directly to make certain there were no other problems. Oak Park asserts that Heck consistently stated he would deliver a signed subordination agreement acceptable to Miller . & Schroeder prior to the closing on the mortgage.

However, the Miller & Schroeder financing, originally scheduled to close on September 2, 1987, could not go forward because Snyder Brothers had not returned a subordination agreement acceptable to Miller & Schroeder. On the morning of September 3, 1987, the parties and Miller & Schroeder had a conference call and went through the subordination agreement line-by-line. Heck agreed to prepare the subordination agreement and send it to Miller & Schroeder. Oak Park states that several times during the day, Heck agreed to specific language in the subordination agreement, but each time failed to deliver a document reflecting the agreement reached.

On September 4, 1987, the process began again but Heck failed to produce an agreed upon document. The next day, another meeting was held and Heck stated he would provide a subordination agreement in accordance with everyone’s agreement. Again, an acceptable document was not received. The process continued and on September 8, 1987, the interested parties met again for 12 hours. Oak Park describes the meeting as “attempting to beg, plead and cajole a subordination agreement out of Heck.” Finally, on September 9, 1987, Heck produced a subordination agreement acceptable to everyone and delivered the document on September 10, 1987 after certain closing documents had been filed. Additionally, the Fourth Lease Rider was executed at this time.

As soon as Oak Park received the signed subordination agreement from Snyder Brothers on September 10, 1987, it set up a meeting with Herberger’s. Oak Park believed if it could get an extension on the construction start from October 1 to October 10, 1987, it could still deliver the store on time. Herberger’s, however, advised Oak Park that it had been contacted about locating at the Woodland Lakes Mall.

The Woodlands Lakes Mall was a proposed mall to be located only two miles from the St. Croix Mall. A Woodland Lakes representative approached Herber-ger’s about locating there some time in late 1986 or early 1987, but there was no contact from the end of July until around the first week of September 1987.

On September 9, 1987, a Woodland Lakes representative sent a letter to Herberger’s CEO setting forth a proposal to attract Herberger’s to the new mall. On September 10, 1987, Woodland Lakes offered Her-berger’s $2.25 million as an incentive to locate in the new mall. Herberger’s subsequently terminated its lease with Oak Park on September 16, 1987 and signed a lease with Woodland Lakes on September 29, 1987.

Appellants argue that had the financing closed as originally scheduled, Herberger’s could never have considered Woodland Lakes’ $2.25 million offer. Therefore, Oak Park commenced this action alleging Snyder Brothers’ untimely delivery of 'a subordination agreement caused it to lose Her-berger’s as a tenant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
499 N.W.2d 500, 1993 Minn. App. LEXIS 440, 1993 WL 128828, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oak-park-development-co-v-snyder-bros-of-minnesota-inc-minnctapp-1993.