Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

Rulings on COVID-19 Defenses In Commercial Real Estate

By Massimo F. D'Angelo and Gregory Wong
September 01, 2022

Despite some new variants and a possible resurgence in the fall, the pandemic closures seem to be finally coming to an end. And with it, so too have most of the COVID-19 defenses in court cases involving commercial leases. However, all may not be foreclosed for a commercial tenant, particularly where a tenant is able to point to a specific provision of its lease that could excuse its obligation to pay rent during the closure of its business.

As a consequence of the pandemic, many commercial tenants were unable to pay rent and raised defenses — chief among them arguments based on the common-law doctrines of frustration of purpose and impossibility, as well as force majeure provisions in their leases — seeking to be excused from the nonpayment of rent. Consequently, courts were left to grapple with these issues with relatively little precedent to guide them, as there was no prevailing legal authority from the last time that the U.S. saw a pandemic over 100 years ago during the 1918 influenza pandemic that was caused by the H1N1 virus.

This premium content is locked for Entertainment Law & Finance subscribers only

  • Stay current on the latest information, rulings, regulations, and trends
  • Includes practical, must-have information on copyrights, royalties, AI, and more
  • Tap into expert guidance from top entertainment lawyers and experts

For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473

Read These Next
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough Image

There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.

Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs Image

A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.

Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It Image

Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?

Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners Image

Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.

Coverage Issues Stemming from Dry Cleaner Contamination Suits Image

In recent years, there has been a growing number of dry cleaners claiming to be "organic," "green," or "eco-friendly." While that may be true with respect to some, many dry cleaners continue to use a cleaning method involving the use of a solvent called perchloroethylene, commonly known as perc. And, there seems to be an increasing number of lawsuits stemming from environmental problems associated with historic dry cleaning operations utilizing this chemical.