Orr v. Doubleday, Page & Co.

172 A.D. 96, 157 N.Y.S. 1009, 1916 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10359
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 24, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 172 A.D. 96 (Orr v. Doubleday, Page & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Orr v. Doubleday, Page & Co., 172 A.D. 96, 157 N.Y.S. 1009, 1916 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10359 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1916).

Opinion

Per Curiam:

The chief issue here is whether defendant, which had leased from John 0. Orr a building on East Sixteenth street, Manhattan, for ten years ending November 1, 1914, with an option of renewal, gave notice of intention to renew, by which defendant became liable for rent during the renewal term. Besides denying the averments as to such renewal, the amended answer asserts a defect of parties plaintiff. It alleges that three surviving Orr children, individually, had title on November 1, 1914, and, therefore, should be plaintiffs. Upon defendant’s removal, in October, 1910, from the borough of Manhattan to Garden City, it no longer required this building; but the lease with this privilege of renewal was considered advantageous and profitable. As early as September, 1910, defendant suggested a prospective successor in its leasehold interest, but these suggestions were not consummated. Early in 1911, negotiations were had with a view to assigning to a Mr. Jacob Greenberg the remaining three and a half years of the original term, which would carry over to him this renewal option. It was proposed that he should pay $11,000 yearly rent instead of $10,000 reserved under the lease. If this substitution should receive the court’s sanction, and defendant’s liability be canceled, the executors were to be paid $1,000 cash, and the legal [98]*98expenses, not exceeding $500, to procure such authority from the court, and further defendant was to guarantee Mr. Green-berg’s rent for the remaining three and a half years. While this proposal remained unaccepted, and on March 24, 1911, Mr. Greenberg in the name of the Irving Place Leasing Company, of which he was president, took from defendant a sublease of the entire premises from May 1, 1911, to November 1, 1914. Should the court authorize the trustees to substitute this subtenant as lessee, then there were further agreements between the subtenant and defendant. With such expectations defendant, on March 29, 1911, sent the first notice of renewal, of which the important parts are:

“We hereby notify you that it is our intention to take advantage of our rights and renew for a period of ten years beginning November 1st, 1914, terminating October 31st, 1924, with the understanding that this notice is to be withdrawn if the Court consents to accept the transfer of the lease now in course of negotiation to the Irving Place Leasing Company, in which event the Estate of John C. Orr is to consent to the assignment of our lease to the Irving Place Leasing Company as per agreements now pending.”

Defendant then looked for a complete disposal of its interest in this lease through this authorized substitution of the subtenant in defendant’s place. Apparently weeks passed without the lessors taking any steps to obtain any such authority. It never was obtained, and apparently not applied for, but it does not appear when this idea of a substitution was definitely given up.

In the meantime the Irving Place Leasing Company was subletting, so that defendant was being asked for authority to make longer terms to subtenants of the Irving Place Company which, in 1912, appeared to be solvent and prosperous. Defendant accordingly, on October 28, 1912, wrote to the Orr Estate:

“ On or about June 1st, 1911 [a clerical error for March], we notified you of our intention to renew the lease for the property at 133 East 16th street for a period of ten years, taking advantage of the option given us in our lease. The second term begins November 1st, 1914. The present tenant of the [99]*99building, the Irving Place Leasing Company, desire to give to a respective (sic) tenant a five-year lease for the fifth floor of the building, and have requested us to give them the lease for the second term, namely, from November 1st, 1914, to November 1st, 1924. Won’t you please send us communication acknowledging receipt of our notice to you of our intent to take advantage of this option ? ” (The writer alluded to defendant’s yearly profit of $750 by its sublease, and the satisfactory manner the Irving Place Leasing Company was meeting its obligations, but asked the Orr Estate to make defendant a proposition to take over the lease.) It concluded: “Please send at once the acknowledgment of our notice, and let us hear from you in reference to the lease after you have had time to give it careful consideration.”

Neither this letter nor the one of March, 1911, was ever acknowledged.

The five-year lease of the fifth floor was apparently made to the Phoenix Engraving Company by the Irving Place Leasing Company, which latter’s affairs became so involved that, in the spring of 1913, it was dispossessed by defendant. This left the Phoenix Engraving Company in difficulties, as it had made expensive alterations upon the faith of its five-year term. On April 1, 1913, defendant granted the Phoenix Engraving Company a new lease to cover the original five-year term which ran to December 31, 1917, thus overrunning defendant’s original term. While defendant was thus protecting an innocent victim of another’s default, still the granting of such a lease assumed the effect and efficacy of its prior notices of renewal. At this time defendant gave another lease to the American Letter Company which ran two or three months beyond October 31, 1914. However, the situation appears to have changed quite abruptly, as on April 28,1913, defendant wrote to the Orr Estate: “We wish to write and withdraw the tentative proposal for the continuation of our lease on your property at 133-137 East 16th Street. It is our understanding of the lease that we have up to within ninety days of its expiration, as a period in which we can definitely take the option of extension which the lease secures to us.” This was unanswered. On November 1, 1914, defendant vacated the premises. This action for three [100]*100months’ rent was begun January 28, 1915. ■ The letter of March 29/1911, was a direct notice of intention to renew. If the trustees should be allowed to accept the Irving Place Leasing Company as a tenant, such a notice might stand in the way; hence the understanding stated that in such event the notice is to be withdrawn — a right thus made dependent upon this substitution. Though the representatives of the Orr Estate never obtained such leave, defendant did not withdraw, and by not exercising this reserved right, allowed it to lapse and the notice to become absolute. The October letter confirmed, the defendant as a continuing tenant, then planning to grant five-year terms to its subtenants. Defendant’s counsel cites Poel v. Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. (216 N. Y. 310) as to the effect of the lessors’ disregard of defendant’s request that its October letter be acknowledged. Defendant in that case embodied in an order for merchandise a condition, which it had a right to annex to its offer, that “in any event you must promptly acknowledge ” the order. In such case a failure to reply was deemed no acceptance. Here an acknowledgment was simply requested and not made an essential condition. Clearly, therefore, the notices through these successive letters, especially in view of defendant’s two leases running into the renewal term, effected a definite renewal of the lease, which its letter of April 28, 1913, was ineffective to withdraw or cancel.

The learned counsel, however, urges the verbal distinction between a “renewal” of a lease and its “ extension” — in that an “extension” prolongs any existing lease without a new instrument, while “ renewal ” is strictly a new lease.

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Bluebook (online)
172 A.D. 96, 157 N.Y.S. 1009, 1916 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 10359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/orr-v-doubleday-page-co-nyappdiv-1916.