Pepper Pot II, Inc. v. Imperial Realty Co.

479 N.E.2d 949, 133 Ill. App. 3d 951, 88 Ill. Dec. 929, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 2048
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 21, 1985
DocketNo. 84—1127
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 479 N.E.2d 949 (Pepper Pot II, Inc. v. Imperial Realty 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
Pepper Pot II, Inc. v. Imperial Realty Co., 479 N.E.2d 949, 133 Ill. App. 3d 951, 88 Ill. Dec. 929, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 2048 (Ill. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

JUSTICE PERLIN

delivered the opinion of the court:

In February 1974, a three-year lease expiring September 30, 1977, was entered into between American National Bank & Trust Company of Chicago, as trustee under trust No. 16324, as lessor, and Normandie Inn Corporation, as lessee, for the premises located at 105 North Dear-born Street in Chicago. Paragraph 23 of that lease gave the lessee two options to renew: for a G^-year period (October 1977 through March 1984) and, if this first option was exercised, for a 10-year period thereafter (April 1984 through March 1994).

In December 1974, lessee Normandie Inn Corporation assigned the lease to the plaintiff/ counter defendant herein, The Pepper Pot II, Inc. (Pepper Pot).

In March 1977, Pepper Pot notified the lessor, trustee American National Bank, that it intended to exercise the renewal option through March 1984.

At some time thereafter, American National Bank assigned the lease to the First National Bank of Highland Park as trustee under trust No. 2255 (Highland Park Trustee). (While Highland Park Trustee asserts that Pepper Pot “knew” of this assignment, the record is inconclusive on this point).

Pursuant to the lease, if Pepper Pot intended to exercise its right to renew for the 10-year period commencing March 1984, Pepper Pot was required to give “written notice to the lessor” on or before September 30,1983.

On September 30, 1983, Pepper Pot’s attorney mailed a letter on his client’s behalf addressed to “Mr. Lawrence Clairmont” and “Mr. Allen Clairmont” at “Imperial Realty Company” advising of Pepper Pot’s intention to exercise its option to renew the lease for the additional 10 years. The letter was mailed on September 30, postmarked on October 3 and received at Imperial Realty Company on October 4, 1983. On November 9, 1983, Larry Klairmont sent a letter to Pepper Pot in which he advised that Pepper Pot’s letter purporting to renew the lease was “not made within the time required” under the lease and that Pepper Pot’s lease would therefore terminate on March 31,1984.

Pepper Pot thereafter filed an action for declaratory relief against “Imperial Realty Company, Lawrence Klairmont and Allen Klairmont,” requesting the circuit court to adjudicate the parties’ rights under the lease, and to declare that Pepper Pot had timely exercised its right of renewal through March 1984. (Plaintiff also requested certain monetary damages not here relevant.)

Defendants filed a motion to dismiss, alleging that plaintiff failed to “name any lessor under the lease” and that Alfred Klairmont, Larry Klairmont and Imperial Realty are not beneficiaries under the “American National Bank” land trust.

The trial court denied defendants’ motion to dismiss and instead allowed Pepper Pot to amend its complaint, correcting the names of the individual defendants. Defendants’ answer to the complaint affirmatively stated that the Highland Park Trustee was the lessor of the subject premises.

Thereafter Highland Park Trustee filed a countercomplaint for declaratory relief against Pepper Pot wherein it alleged that it was the “lessor” under the lease in issue, and that Pepper Pot had failed to give Highland Park Trustee proper notice of its intention to renew the lease. The countercomplaint asked the court to declare the lease terminated as of March 31, 1984, and to award possession of the premises to the Highland Park Trustee. Attached to the trustee’s complaint was the affidavit of Larry, not “Lawrence,” Klairmont stating that he was “sole beneficiary” of Highland Park Trust No. 2255.

Defendants then filed a motion to dismiss the declaratory relief count of Pepper Pot’s complaint, contending that Pepper Pot’s notice to renew the option was void because it was not given to the “lessor” of the property (Highland Park Trustee) as required by the lease.

Following a hearing the trial court entered an order providing in relevant part:

“1. The notice to exercise the renewal option detailed in paragraph 23 of the lease was properly given when deposited in the mailbox on September 30, 1983 ***.
2. That *** the sole beneficial owner of the land trust, Larry Klairmont, received the notice on October 4,1983.
3. The misspelling of the name ‘Klairmont’ as ‘Clairmont’ and the fact that the first name of the beneficial owner is ‘Larry’ and not ‘Lawrence’ as well as the fact that the notice to renew was directed to the agent of the land trust, Imperial Realty, and the sole beneficial owner of the land trust were not material variations of paragraph 23 of said lease. Therefore, the Court finds that plaintiff has properly exercised its option notice of the lease *** JJ

Defendants and counterplaintiff filed a timely appeal from that order.

Appellants have not, in this court, challenged the trial court’s finding that the misspellings of defendants’ names were not a “material variation” from the requirements found in paragraph 23 of the lease, nor the trial court’s finding that Pepper Pot’s notice of its intent to renew was timely made. They, therefore, have waived consideration of these findings. 87 Ill. 2d R. 341(e)(7); J.R. Sinnott Carpentry, Inc. v. Phillips (1982), 110 Ill. App. 3d 632, 443 N.E.2d 597.

Thus the sole issue presented is whether, under all of the relevant facts, the trial court’s conclusion that Pepper Pot had “properly exercised its option notice” under the lease is a correct one.

An Illinois land trust is a property ownership arrangement whereby, pursuant to statute (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1983, ch. 29, par. 8.31), a trustee holds the legal and equitable title to the trust property and the beneficiary, who has a personal property interest, retains the power of direction over the trustee and the power to manage and receive income from the trust property. See Wachta v. First Federal Savings & Loan Association (1981), 103 Ill. App. 3d 174, 430 N.E.2d 708.

Highland Park Trustee contends that because the lease specified that notice of Pepper Pot’s exercise of its option to renew should be given in “written notice to the Lessor” and that Highland Park (by virtue of the 1977 assignment of the lease to it by American National Bank), was the lessor, Pepper Pot never gave the “lessor” the requisite notice. Highland Park Trustee relies primarily on the case of Kurek v. State Oil Co. (1981), 98 Ill. App. 3d 6, 424 N.E.2d 56. In that case rental property was owned by a landlord-trustee, but managed by one of the land trust’s five beneficiaries. The tenant prepared a notice of its intention to exercise its renewal option and gave the notice to the one managing beneficiary, rather than to the lessor-land trustee. The beneficiaries and trustee brought a forcible detainer action against the tenant. The trial court entered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
479 N.E.2d 949, 133 Ill. App. 3d 951, 88 Ill. Dec. 929, 1985 Ill. App. LEXIS 2048, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pepper-pot-ii-inc-v-imperial-realty-co-illappct-1985.