Orchard Shopping Center, Inc. v. Campo

485 N.E.2d 1248, 138 Ill. App. 3d 656, 93 Ill. Dec. 38, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 2731
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 19, 1985
Docket5-84-0745
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 485 N.E.2d 1248 (Orchard Shopping Center, Inc. v. Campo) 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
Orchard Shopping Center, Inc. v. Campo, 485 N.E.2d 1248, 138 Ill. App. 3d 656, 93 Ill. Dec. 38, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 2731 (Ill. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

PRESIDING JUSTICE JONES

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, Orchard Shopping Center, Inc., brought this action to recover unpaid rent in the amount of $16,300 and attorney fees and costs from the defendants Michael Campo and John Rimar. The action was based on a written lease agreement between the plaintiff as lessor and Michael Campo and Gerald Hillyard as lessees. Gerald Hillyard died prior to the commencement of the suit. The plaintiff alleged in its first amended complaint that Gerald Hillyard and Michael Campo had assigned their interest to John Rimar. Following a bench trial the trial court found that there had been an oral modification of the lease between plaintiff and defendant Campo, which had resulted in a rescission of the lease agreement. The trial court found further that plaintiff’s actions estopped their claim regarding defendant Campo. The court found the defendant Rimar liable for damages during the period in which he was in possession of the estate. The court entered judgment against plaintiff in favor of defendant Campo and in favor of plaintiff against the defendant Rimar in the amount of $1,300 and denied the plaintiff’s claim for attorney fees. The trial court also entered judgment in favor of the defendant Rimar against the defendant Campo on the counterclaim of the latter. The defendant Rimar’s post-trial motion for modification of the judgment, by crediting him with a $650 deposit, was denied. The plaintiff brought this appeal raising three issues: (1) whether the trial court’s findings that defendant Campo was released from liability and that plaintiff was estopped from its claim against him was against the manifest weight of the evidence; (2) whether the trial court erred in finding defendant liable only for the time he was in possession of the property because, the plaintiff urges, the agreement with Rimar was an assignment rather than a sublease; and (3) whether the denial of attorney fees and costs was erroneous. No appeal has been taken concerning the part of the judgment dealing with the counterclaim.

The five-year lease, effective June 15, 1978, between plaintiff and Hillyard and Campo, d/b/a Quality Meat and Produce, was executed on May 16, 1978. In paragraph 36 the lease provides that it “contains the entire agreement between the parties and executory agreement made hereafter shall be ineffective to change, modify, or discharge this lease in whole or in part, unless such executory agreement is in writing and signed by the party against whom enforcement of the change, modification or discharge is sought.”

At the hearing conducted on September 5, 1984, the plaintiff called the defendant Campo as an adverse witness pursuant to section 2 — 1102 of the Code of Civil Procedure (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 110, par. 2 — 1102). He testified that he and Hillyard had rented the premises in question to operate a butcher shop. After nine months of operation, the butcher shop did not generate enough income to support “two families,” whereupon Campo sold his share of the business to Hillyard. The defendant, likewise, called the defendant Rimar as an adverse witness. He testified concerning the “Sublease Agreement,” prepared by his attorney, between himself as “sublessee” and Hillyard as “sublessor” of the premises of the butcher shop. Rimar’s son had operated a butcher shop in the premises between approximately December of 1979 and November of 1980, at which time the witness had executed a seven-day option to cancel the “Sublease Agreement” by presenting the cancellation notice to Hillyard.

Frank King, an owner and officer of the plaintiff corporation, testified concerning the “Lessor’s Consent to Sublease,” dated December 15, 1979, by which the plaintiff consented to the “subleasing” to Rimar of the premises in question. He testified further that the monthly rental for the property in question was $650 and that rent had been paid from September 15, 1978, to August 15, 1980. He had, he said, received a check for $1,300 on October 8, 1980, that had been returned for insufficient funds. That check would have paid the rent through October 15, 1980. Once the property became vacant he received inquiries from persons interested in renting it, but none of them resulted in rental of the property prior to October of 1982, he said, when the Son-Life Fellowship Church went into possession of it. He testified that during the period of vacancy he had not refused to rent to anyone, that during that time Son-Life Fellowship Church, which already rented certain space from plaintiff, had expressed the wish to the plaintiff to rent additional space, and that the plaintiff would have preferred high-volume retail-sales lessees in the shopping center.

Richard McGovern, an attorney and an owner and officer of the plaintiff, likewise, testified that the property was vacant from the latter part of 1980 until October of 1982, when Son-Life Fellowship Church took possession of it. On cross-examination he stated that he did not recall having told Campo that he was going to be released from the lease but recalled that after Campo and Hillyard had terminated their business relationship the witness had talked with Campo “about owing the money.” In his deposition, however, taken on March 3, 1982, he had recalled having spoken with Campo “about somebody taking over the lease” but made no mention in the deposition of having talked with Campo about any money owed. The witness testified further that he had prepared an “Agreement,” dated September 30, 1981, by which Sharon Hillyard, widow of Gerald Hillyard, who died on January 13, 1981, would pay $9,150, to the plaintiff. McGovern had taken the proposed agreement to her house and presented it to her, but she would not sign it. He denied that he had told Sharon Hillyard that Campo was no longer liable on the lease and stated that he had not approached Sharon Hillyard until that time for the reason that “she wasn’t liable.” He testified that prior to October of 1982 the Son-Life Fellowship Church was already leasing some space from plaintiff and that between October of 1980 and October of 1982 the church had approached him about leasing certain additional space, which was already rented by RN. Hirsch. On cross-examination he said that the church never asked to rent the property in question other than just prior to October of 1982, as, for example, in 1980 or 1981 and that “[h]ad they asked me, I would have been glad to rent it to them.” He stated further on cross-examination that he had had no objection to the arrangement of Hillyard and Rimar because “It was just a sublease,” by which McGovern said he meant that “[Rimar] wasn’t taking an assignment of the existing lease.” Rimar had not, he said, told him that the business was a failing one that he was going to try to salvage and that because of its history of failure Rimar had agreed with Hil-lyard to cancellation on seven days’ notice. On redirect he said that the plaintiff had never released Hillyard, Campo, or Rimar in any way from any liability arising out of the lease and “Sublease Agreement” and stated further: “I will repeat it very clear [sic]. I never told anybody that they were released from any obligations under any of these documents.” He asserted that he had never told any of the three persons involved that he had released any of the other parties from their obligations under “these documents.” Asked on re-cross, “And just so I get it clear in my mind, the only time that Son-Life came to you and wanted to rent part of this shopping center that they didn’t get is what they wanted to get the P.N.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
485 N.E.2d 1248, 138 Ill. App. 3d 656, 93 Ill. Dec. 38, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 2731, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/orchard-shopping-center-inc-v-campo-illappct-1985.