Liggett v. Kaufmann
Liggett v. Kaufmann
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
In determining whether the appellees have the right to continue in the occupancy of the premises in question for a period of five years from April 1, 1908 — the date of the expiration of the lease executed to them by John Liggett and M. A. Woodward, trustees of the estate of Sarah L.
Jacob Kaufmann, one of the parties to the agreement with the trustees, died November 1, 1905, during the second extension of the term acquired under the lease from Mrs. Hitchcock, and the contention of the appellant is that the three surviving lessees cannot avail themselves of what, it is insisted, was but an option given by the trustees to four, to be accepted by them jointly, and which was revoked by the death of one of them before it had been accepted. The agreement of November 20, 1897, is not to be so read. True, in the above-quoted clause from the agreement with the trustees the words “option” and “options” are to be found, but that they were used by the parties to the agreement to mean an absolute right or privilege granted to the lessees, or their assigns, is the only conclusion to be reached. That such right or privilege, and not a mere option to the four lessees jointly, was granted by Mrs. Hitchcock in her leases cannot be questioned, and it is that right or privilege to which the trustees refer when they designate it an “option to extend the term of the lease for the said first period of five years running from April 1st, 1898.” Such designation of the right or privilege granted by Mrs. Hitchcock did not
As it clearly appears from the face of the agreement that the right upon which the appellees insist, passed to them under it, we need not refer to the situation of the parties and the surrounding circumstances at the time it was executed as indicating the intention of both lessors and lessees that the appellees were to have the right to an extension of the term.
The alternative prayer- of appellant’s bill was that, if the lease by the trustees should be construed as giving to the appellees the right to extend the term, the rental for the five years from April 1, 1908, should be fixed by the court. This was done, and, after careful examination of all the testimony submitted on the question of a proper rental, we cannot say there was error in the decree directing that the appellees pay an annual rental of $90,000 and all taxes and insurance during the extended term.
Reference
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- Landlord and tenant — Construction of lease — Privilege of re-renting— Previous leases — Options. Where premises are rented by testamentary trustees for a term of years, and it appears that the testatrix in her lifetime had executed two leases for the same premises to the same lessees for a term of years with the privilege in the lessees and their assigns to re-rent the premises for five years and if they should exercise this privilege of re-renting they were then to have the privilege of re-renting for an additional five-year term, and it further appears that the trustees in their lease, after reciting ipsissimis verbis the privileges granted by the leases executed by the testatrix, provided that whereas the lessees had given the trustees notice of their ‘-'option” to extend the term for the first five-year period and desired to “provide for and obtain the right of further options for the extension of said lease before the expiration of said two periods, so that they may have at the expiration of the second of said periods an extension of the said leases for five years thereafter and for the extension after that period, of said leases for another period of four years, .... the parties hereto,..... agree to such extensions upon the exercise of like options upon the same terms as expressed within said leases with regard to the two options therein provided for,” the lessees take an absolute right or privilege of re-renting under the lease from the trustees and not a mere option.