Richard v. Degen & Brody, Inc.

181 Cal. App. 2d 289, 5 Cal. Rptr. 263, 1960 Cal. App. LEXIS 1996
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 25, 1960
DocketCiv. 24162
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 181 Cal. App. 2d 289 (Richard v. Degen & Brody, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richard v. Degen & Brody, Inc., 181 Cal. App. 2d 289, 5 Cal. Rptr. 263, 1960 Cal. App. LEXIS 1996 (Cal. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

ASHBURN, J.

Unlawful detainer action. Plaintiff recovered judgment and defendants appeal; plaintiff also appeals.

Plaintiff acquired the property from Robert Lee Myer through an escrow which was opened on May 8, 1958, and closed on June 30, 1958. The premises were under lease to defendant Degen and Brody, Incorporated, the term having some two years to run. That lease forbade assignment or subleasing by the lessee without written consent of the lessor, and provided that "[a] ny such assignment or subletting without such consent shall be void, and shall, at the option of lessor, terminate this lease. ’ ’ It specified that the premises should be used “for the purpose of conducting therein a flooring and aecoustical supply business, and for no other purpose,” and said in paragraph 2: “Lessee shall not use, or permit said premises, or any part thereof, to be used, for any purpose or purposes other than the purpose or purposes for which said premises are hereby leased.” Paragraph 3 provides: “Lessee shall not make, or suffer to be made, any alterations of the said premises, or any part thereof, without the written consent of lessor first had and obtained. . . . ” It was stipulated at the trial that “there has been no written consent to the subletting or to a use different than that provided in the lease, nor is there any written consent to the alteration of the premises by plaintiff. ’ ’ The court found that the lessee, Degen and Brody, Inc., did sublet a portion of the premises to defendant Allied Stores of America without the consent of the lessor Myer, or of *293 plaintiff, and said “ [d]efendants did, without the consent of Plaintiff and against his will and over his objections occupy and now continue to occupy a portion of said premises”; that defendant Degen and Brody, Inc. “caused extensive alterations to portions of the said premises without the written consent of Lessor or of plaintiff, and without any consent of Lessor or of Plaintiff”; also that “ [djefendant Allied Stores of America is occupying a portion of the leased premises, is conducting therein a furniture, furnishings, carpeting, draperies, and interior decorating business, all without the consent of Robert Lee Myer, Lessor, and without the consent of plaintiff.” The court concluded and adjudged that defendants were guilty of unlawful detainer, that plaintiff be restored to possession, and the lease of Degen and Brody, Inc. terminated and forfeited. Damages were awarded for unlawful detainer in the sum of $1,800 and interest, less a credit of $730; damages for alteration of premises, $390; plaintiff also to recover an attorney fee of $1,200 and costs. Defendants procured a stay of execution during pendency of appeal conditioned upon payment of current rents provided by the lease and the posting of a bond in the sum of $10,000.

Defendants’ Appeal

Defendants argue that the three-day notice to quit which was served on them was insufficient and hence there was no basis for maintaining the action. That notice specified as breaches of the lease, (1) use of the premises for purposes other than those specified in the lease, (2) making of alterations without written or any consent of lessor, and (3) making of sublease without written consent of lessor or any consent. It is in the customary form of a three-day notice to cure the defaults or surrender possession, and advises of an intent to terminate the lease, reenter the premises and file proceedings in unlawful detainer in event of failure of said defendants to cure the specified defaults within the prescribed three-day period.

Defendants argue that a subleasing without consent cannot be cured and hence a three-day notice cannot apply to such a default, citing cases to the effect that an alternative three-day notice is not necessary in such a situation and relying upon the latter portion of subdivision 3 of section 1161, Code of Civil Procedure: “[P]rovided, if the conditions and covenants of the lease, violated by the lessee, can not afterward be performed, then no notice, as last prescribed herein, need be given to said lessee or his subtenant, demanding the *294 performance of the violated conditions or covenants of the lease.” The cited cases are, Schnittger v. Rose, 139 Cal. 656 [73 P. 449], and Horton-Howard v. Payton, 44 Cal.App. 108 [186 P. 167].

Schnittger, supra, holds (p. 661) that a three-day demand for possession is always necessary before commencement of unlawful detainer but that couching the notice in alternative form would be “an idle and useless ceremony” where the breached covenants could not be performed. “The demand operates both as a notice of the landlord’s election to insist on a forfeiture of the lease, and as requiring surrender of possession by the tenant.” (P. 661.) “The only advantage which accrues to him from the breach is the right to possession; the only notice the lessee can have that the landlord elects to avail himself of the breach is a demand for that alone which the breach entitles him to—a surrender of the possession of the premises.” (Pp. 661-662.) Even if the specified breach is not capable of being cured, a three-day notice to quit is essential; it need not contain the alternative provision about performing or surrendering.

Horton-Howard v. Payton, supra, 44 Cal.App. 108, at 111 says that “the notice, in such case, need not be in the alternative, but it will be sufficient simply to give three days’ notice demanding ‘the possession of the property.’ Such demand for possession is a statutory prerequisite to any forfeiture of the lease, even though notice of the alternative requirement— performance of the condition or covenant—need not be given.” As to the form of the notice, it is further said at page 112: “No particular words are prescribed, and no special form is indispensable. Doubtless any written demand is sufficient if the person to whom it is given, as a person of common understanding, must understand from it that the landlord is absolutely and unconditionally demanding of him possession of the demised premises.”

Informing a tenant that he must cure within three days a breach which he knows cannot be cured and that his failure so to do will bring on an unlawful detainer action, has no tendency to confuse or mislead him. It can spell only one thing, the determination of the landlord to take advantage of the default after the three days. We consider the alternative clause of the instant notice to be entirely innocuous. Moreover, that notice specified three defaults, two of which presumably could have been cured in three days, and an alternative provision in the notice was indispensable as to them. The evidence at the trial was sufficient to support the findings that those *295 breaches existed and were not cured. Hence the judgment is sustainable regardless of any invalidity of the notice concerning the subleasing.

Defendants assert that they were denied a jury trial which they had demanded and to which they were entitled. The demand was for jury trial upon all issues. The complaint was in customary form of unlawful detainer and section 1171, Code of Civil Procedure, which refers to unlawful or forcible detainer, says: “Whenever an issue of fact is presented by the pleadings, it must be tried by a jury, unless such jury be waived as in other eases.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
181 Cal. App. 2d 289, 5 Cal. Rptr. 263, 1960 Cal. App. LEXIS 1996, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richard-v-degen-brody-inc-calctapp-1960.