Don't Become a Casualty of Lease Casualty Clauses
Partner Eric Sherman and Associate Eric Dowell have authored this Law360 article addressing the application of Article 9 of the Real Estate Board of New York’s standard form commercial lease. To date, the clause has received scant judicial attention, which invites some confusion about how to interpret the clause. The resulting lack of guidelines should be concerning.
As Hurricane Sandy made clear, one casualty event can render thousands of commercial properties “unusable” for at least some period of time. When faced with such circumstances, both landlords and tenants should have a clear understanding of the operative ground rules. With this in mind, the authors recommend a reading of Article 9 that makes sense in terms of the rules of contract interpretation as well as public policy grounds.
To read the article in its entirety, click here.
Associate Andrew M. Goldsmith assisted in the research for this article.
