Sheplers, Inc. v. Kabuto International (Nevada) Corp.

63 F. Supp. 2d 1306, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14129, 1999 WL 713968
CourtDistrict Court, D. Kansas
DecidedAugust 6, 1999
DocketCiv.A. 98-2131-GTV
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 63 F. Supp. 2d 1306 (Sheplers, Inc. v. Kabuto International (Nevada) Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sheplers, Inc. v. Kabuto International (Nevada) Corp., 63 F. Supp. 2d 1306, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14129, 1999 WL 713968 (D. Kan. 1999).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

VanBEBBER, District Judge.

Plaintiff Sheplers, Inc. brings this diversity action against defendant Kabuto International (Nevada) Corporation, seeking a declaratory judgment and an accounting under a lease between the parties. The lease dispute revolves around a lease provision which allows defendant, the landlord, to charge tenants for their proportionate share of the common area maintenance costs. The case came before the court for a bench trial on April 29 and 80, 1999. Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a), the court makes the following findings of fact and conclusions of law.

I. Findings of Fact

A. General Facts

On August 4, 1992, plaintiff, as tenant, and defendant, as landlord, entered a lease for commercial retail space in the Pecos-Tropicana Centre (“the Pecos Centre”) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The lease commenced November 1,1992. The lease ended October 31, 1997, unless plaintiff exercised its option to extend the lease for an additional term of five years. The lease provided that plaintiff could exercise its option three times, fully extending the lease to October 81, 2012. On April 29, 1997, plaintiff exercised its first option to extend the lease for a second five-year term from November 1, 1997 to October 31, 2002.

*1309 The parties’ dispute concerns whether certain costs were properly chargeable to plaintiff as common area maintenance (CAM) under the lease. Paragraph 3.9 of the lease provides that “common area expenses” include:

the operating, managing, equipping, lighting, repairing, replacing, and maintaining the common areas, specifically including landscaping and gardening, parking lot, line painting, lighting, traffic control, if any, sanitary control, removal of snow, trash, rubbish and garbage and other refuse, liability insurance premiums for the common areas, cost of all rentals of machinery equipment in such maintenance, the cost of personnel to implement such services to direct parking and to police the common areas. [CAM] shall specifically exclude all costs associated with the leasing activity in the shopping center and all capital expenditures.

Paragraph 1.3(b) defines “common areas” to include:

parking areas, those items described in Article 10.1 below, service roads, sidewalks and other areas constructed or to be constructed for use in common by the tenant with the other tenants in the shopping center and their employees and business invitees, subject, however, to the terms of this agreement and reasonable rules and regulations prescribed from time to time by the Landlord.

Paragraph 10.1 states that:

All parking areas, driveways, entrances and exits thereto, sidewalks, ramps, landscaped areas, exterior stairways, and all other common areas and facilities provided by Landlord for the common use of tenants of the shopping center and their officers, agents, employees and customers, shall at all times be subject to the exclusive control and management of Landlord, ... Landlord shall have the right and obligation to operate and maintain the same in such manner as Landlord, in its reasonable discretion, shall determine from time to time, including without limitation the right to employ all personnel and to make all rules and regulations pertaining to and necessary for the proper operation and maintenance of said common areas.

Under the terms of the lease, plaintiff must prepay a monthly estimate of its share of the CAM expenses of the Pecos Centre, which is determined by defendant based on the previous year’s CAM expenses. Plaintiffs portion of the expenses is based on the ratio of the total gross square footage of the plaintiffs leased premises to the total square footage of all of the gross leasable space in the Pecos Centre. The parties agree that plaintiffs proportionate share is 4.0828%.

Defendant is required to submit to plaintiff a statement of actual CAM charges within forty-five days after the end of the lease year. The lease provides that the statement must be “in such form and style and shall contain such detail and breakdown as the Tenant may reasonably require.” Within ten days of receipt of the CAM statement, plaintiff must pay any remaining balance for the previous year, or defendant must credit any overpayment to plaintiffs next payment due. The lease allows plaintiff to audit the CAM expenses and to recover the costs of the audit if it discloses an error of greater than three percent in the CAM fee for the period.

B. Off-Site Management Fee

Defendant employs KSK Property Management as its agent and property manager at the Pecos Centre and other properties. KSK’s primary office is located in San Francisco, California. KSK manages only properties owned by defendant, and is, in fact, under the same ownership.

The contract between KSK and defendant requires KSK to collect rent and other income due to defendant, pay from collected funds the cost of operating, maintaining, and repairing the property, institute legal actions regarding the property, maintain accounting books and files *1310 containing rent records, insurance policies, leases, correspondence, receipted bills and vouchers, and all other documents pertaining to the property or the operation thereof, provide defendant with all notices affecting the property, take actions necessary to comply with orders or violations effecting the property, furnish defendant with a monthly statement of rent and income collected, pay to defendant gross receipts, provide management services customarily provided by management agents in the locality of the property, assume responsibility for the proper deposit and application of funds, comply with mortgage requirements, prepare a yearly budget and management plan, and to produce various periodic reports for defendant. KSK performs all of the duties under the contract.

The KSK employees in San Francisco offering services for the Pecos Centre include Peter Widney, Senior Vice President of Property & Asset Management, and accounting personnel. Widney negotiates leases with tenants and supervises and assists the on-site property manager in the property manager’s duties. In 1996, defendant began charging plaintiff for the costs of KSK’s off-site management of the Pecos Centre. Defendant did not charge plaintiff for such costs under the lease in 1992, 1993, 1994, or 1996. In 1996 and 1997, defendant’s CAM expenses attributable to off-site management were $204,-221.00 and $198,722.00, respectively. The off-site management fee is calculated according to the contract between defendant and KSK, which provides that defendant to pay to KSK a fee for management services of four percent of gross rental receipts.

C. Oifr-Site Management Expenses

Defendant began charging plaintiff for on-site management fees in 1995. Defendant did not charge plaintiff for on-site management fees under the lease in 1992, 1993, or 1994. In 1995,1996, and 1997, the components of the on-site management fees varied.

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Bluebook (online)
63 F. Supp. 2d 1306, 1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14129, 1999 WL 713968, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sheplers-inc-v-kabuto-international-nevada-corp-ksd-1999.