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Commercial Litigation

  • "I want them out!" When a tenant stops paying rent, landlords usually have this reaction. But what about those tenants faithfully paying rent while breaching other provisions of the lease? This article examines the eviction of a commercial tenant for non-monetary defaults.

    June 01, 2020Ashlyn Robinson Banks
  • How did the artists qualify for protection under the Visual Artists Rights Act, how could the owners know whether the artists had achieved "recognized stature" warranting prevention of their works' destruction, and what could the owners have done to avoid liability while retaining the right to dispose of their properties as they saw fit?

    June 01, 2020Joseph I. Farca
  • Much attention has been paid to the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on income, unemployment and cash flow for businesses. But new research takes an eye opening look at what the shutdown of many businesses may do to the worth of commercial real estate.

    June 01, 2020Katheryn Tucker
  • Can a commercial tenant that is required to be closed during the COVID-19 pandemic be relieved of, or does it have a defense to, the obligation to continue to pay rent? The short answer is possibly yes, but the situation is unprecedented and the answer may have to be determined in litigation.

    May 01, 2020Terrence Dunn
  • There are currently several bills in various stages of being passed into law in several states as of early April, which would restrict, on a temporary basis, the eviction of commercial tenants from their leased premises for failure to pay rent, Whether these bills get signed into law and survive judicial scrutiny remains to be seen. The question then is whether a landlord may enforce the security deposit section of its lease and take the deposit should the tenant miss a rent payment.

    May 01, 2020Ira Fierstein
  • As we prepare for the anticipated increase in bankruptcy filings caused by the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the economy, many practitioners are trying to compare this to the savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s. One of the issues that keeps coming up cycle after cycle is whether a personal guaranty of a commercial lease is discharged in the bankruptcy of the individual guarantor. Court decisions have split on this issue for years.

    May 01, 2020Andrew C. Kassner and Joseph N. Argentina Jr.
  • The coronavirus has brokers guessing as to how this will affect leasing in the short term, and a report says leasing activity is likely to have a degree of decline in transaction volumes compared to pre-crisis expectations

    April 01, 2020Lisa Brown