Shreveport Plaza Assoc. v. LR RESOURCES II

557 So. 2d 1067, 1990 WL 18556
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 28, 1990
Docket21,282-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 557 So. 2d 1067 (Shreveport Plaza Assoc. v. LR RESOURCES II) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shreveport Plaza Assoc. v. LR RESOURCES II, 557 So. 2d 1067, 1990 WL 18556 (La. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

557 So.2d 1067 (1990)

SHREVEPORT PLAZA ASSOCIATES LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, Plaintiff/Appellee,
v.
L.R. RESOURCES II and ASA Energy Corporation, Defendants/Appellants.

No. 21,282-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

February 28, 1990.

*1068 Gregory J. Barro, Shreveport, for plaintiff/appellee.

Wiener, Weiss, Madison & Howell by James R. Madison, Shreveport, for defendants/appellants.

Before HALL, LINDSAY and HIGHTOWER, JJ.

HALL, Chief Judge.

Defendants-lessees, LR Resources II (Resources) and ASA Energy Corporation (ASA), appeal from the summary judgment granted in favor of plaintiff-lessor, Shreveport Plaza Associates Limited Partnership (Plaza). Plaintiff sought recovery of rentals for both the expired and unexpired terms of the lease, late charges on the past due rentals, costs, and attorney's fees. Plaintiff also sought to exercise its lessor's *1069 lien upon defendants' movable property located on the leased premises through a writ of sequestration. Defendants answered the suit denying that rents were past due under the lease agreement because the lease agreement had been modified. Also, defendants asserted that plaintiff's seizure of their property was a disturbance of their possession of the premises such that an eviction occurred, and therefore defendants had terminated the lease.

Finding that there were no genuine issues of material fact, the trial court granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the plaintiff. It was found that rents were due because the lease had not been modified and that plaintiff's exercise of its landlord's lien did not amount to an eviction. Judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff against defendants for $457,673.81, together with all operating expense, additional tenant charges, and adjustments incurred after January 1, 1987 plus a late payment charge of 15% calculated on the base rental due, with all costs and attorneys fees of $9,444.62, all subject to a credit of $85,811.59. For reasons expressed in this opinion, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

FACTS

On March 19, 1984, the parties to this suit entered into a lengthy and detailed lease agreement, whereby defendants[1] leased approximately 7,000 square feet of office space on the 10th floor of the Louisiana Tower in downtown Shreveport. Subsequently, defendants increased their leased square footage to 11,324 square feet. In September 1986, H.L. Heafner, III, the general manager of Resources, sent a letter to plaintiff requesting that the parties negotiate a restructuring of the lease. Due to a downturn in the oil industry, Resources no longer needed as much office space. In fact, Resources had reduced its staff from approximately 30 employees to 5 employees. Mr. Heafner requested that the office space be reduced to 3,669 square feet.

On November 3, 1986, plaintiff sent the following letter to Mr. Heafner:

"The October and November 1986 base rental and other charges totalling $34,353.25 detailed on the attached invoice are due and payable in full under the provisions of paragraph 4 of our lease agreement within 10 days of this notice.
Negotiations to restructure your lease agreement cannot continue without delivery of the above rental and previously requested financial information by November 13, 1986."

On November 4, 1986, Mr. Heafner replied to the plaintiff with the following letter:

"Negotiations to restructure our lease agreement have been all one-sided. We have supplied all your requested financial information in a timely manner. We think there has been more than enough time elapsed since our initial request to have completed the requested lease revision. We think the November rent should be reduced proportionately to our requested space usage.
When the requested lease revision is completed, the October, 1986, rent check for $17,200.47 will be delivered. Again, we feel you have been dragging your feet at our expense. Please expedite processing of our requested lease revision."

Subsequently, the parties continued to renegotiate the lease agreement. Plaintiff offered in December of 1986 to reduce the leased space to the original 7,949 square feet but needed certain personal guarantees from the defendants. The offer did not mention reducing the rental for November, 1986 to reflect the reduced space.

Mr. Heafner sent a letter in late December of 1986 which rejected the above proposal and again suggested a reduction of the leased space to approximately 3,660 square feet and a reduction of rent, with *1070 the lease revision to be effective November 1, 1986.

During the negotiations, plaintiff continued to send bills for the past due rent to the defendant. Finally, in February of 1987 plaintiff filed suit for the rental for October, November, and December of 1986 and January of 1987. In addition to the past due sums, plaintiff sought to accelerate all future rentals and sought a writ of sequestration.

On February 18, 1987, plaintiff and an official from the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Department executed the writ of sequestration at the leased premises, seizing certain movable property located on the premises. Defendants then answered the suit filed by the plaintiff and deposited in the registry of the court the sums past due under the lease for October of 1986 through January of 1987 in the amount of $85,811.59. The defense was based on assertions that the lease was modified to the extent that no rent was past due at the time suit was filed and that the lease was terminated because of the plaintiff's seizure of the movable property. Defendants filed a reconventional demand based on these assertions, but that claim is not currently before this court as there has been no final judgment disposing of the reconventional demand.

MODIFICATION OF THE LEASE

Defendants in their first assignment of error assert that the trial court erred in concluding that the lease agreement had not been modified by the action of the parties, such that rentals were not due during the negotiations to restructure the lease. On appeal, defendants concede that the issue was properly decided by way of summary judgment, since there were no contested issues of fact surrounding this particular issue. Rather, they argue that the trial court's conclusion is manifestly erroneous. Therefore, the issue for our decision is whether the trial court erred in concluding that the facts of this case did not support a finding of a lease modification. We find no error in the court's decision regarding this issue.

Testimonial or other evidence may not be admitted to negate or vary the contents of an authentic act or an act under private signature. Nevertheless, in the interest of justice, that evidence may be admitted to prove such circumstances as a vice of consent, or a simulation, or to prove that the written act was modified by a subsequent and valid oral agreement. LSA-C.C. Art. 1848. Because a contract of lease need not be in writing, LSA-C.C. Art. 2683, it may be modified by a subsequent oral agreement, and parole evidence is admissible to prove the subsequent modification. Salley v. Louviere, 183 La. 92, 162 So. 811 (1935); Wahlder v. Tiger Stop, Inc., 391 So.2d 535 (La.App. 3d Cir.1980). Even leases which contain provisions specifying that the contract may only be modified in writing may be subsequently modified by oral agreement. Gravier Company v. Satellite Business Systems, 519 So.2d 180 (La.App. 4th Cir.1987); Wahlder, supra.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
557 So. 2d 1067, 1990 WL 18556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shreveport-plaza-assoc-v-lr-resources-ii-lactapp-1990.