Lotte LLC v. Young
Lotte LLC v. Young
Opinion of the Court
Lotte LLC (Lotte) appeals from a judgment dismissing its breach of contract complaint. We affirm.
Background. We summarize the facts alleged in Lotte's complaint and the attached lease. On May 14, 2015, Peter Young and Lotte executed a lease for certain premises. The lease specifically identifies the "landlord" as "Lotte LLC" and the "tenants," plural, as "Heather Reynolds" and "Peter Yonag" [sic ].
Lotte filed a complaint against Young alleging breach of contract. A Superior Court judge dismissed Lotte's complaint on Young's motion under Mass.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6),
Discussion. "We review the allowance of a motion to dismiss de novo. ... We accept as true the facts alleged in the plaintiff['s] complaint as well as any favorable inferences that reasonably can be drawn from them." Galiastro v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Sys., Inc.,
Lotte's complaint was properly dismissed. Lease paragraph 21 provides, correcting for spelling and other clerical errors, that:
"No rights or obligations are hereunder conferred upon either party until this lease agreement has been executed by both Landlord and Tenant, and a fully executed copy of the lease agreement has been delivered to both parties according to the terms hereof."
Lease paragraph 28 continues that:
"This lease agreement may be executed in several counterparts, ... however, this lease agreement shall not be effective or enforceable against any party hereto until all parties have executed at least one counterpart of the lease and all parties have received a counterpart of all signatures" (emphasis added).
Reynolds is, under the lease's explicit terms, an identified "tenant" and a party to the lease. Lotte does not allege that Reynolds executed the lease or received any counterpart, or that Young was authorized to act on Reynolds's behalf. As such, the lease, by its own terms, never became effective and may not be enforced. Compare Licata v. GGNSC Malden Dexter LLC,
Notwithstanding, Lotte suggests that extrinsic evidence in the form of text messages between Young and Lotte demonstrate that Young either waived the lease's full execution requirements or otherwise intended to be bound separately from Reynolds. At the motion hearing, Lotte's counsel represented that there were text messages in which Young purportedly "confirm[ed] that he sent a signed lease." The deficiencies in Lotte's argument are twofold. First, the text messages on which Lotte relies are not in the record. Second, Lotte's representation of the messages at most suggests that Young signed and returned a copy of the lease, not that Young either waived the lease's full execution requirements or otherwise agreed to be bound as the sole tenant given Reynolds's failure to execute. Therefore, even considering the messages, dismissal of Lotte's complaint was proper.
Judgment affirmed.
Young does not dispute that he is the "Peter Yonag" identified by the lease.
The judge allowed Young's motion and dismissed Lotte's complaint "for the reasons stated in the defendant's [Young's] memorandum." Young argued that the lease agreement was not a fully executed contract.
Lotte's argument that the complaint should have been dismissed without prejudice is not supported by legal authority in the brief, as mandated by Mass.R.A.P. 16(a)(4), as amended,
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.