Tenant's Duty to "Maintain" Does Not Include "Repair"
Lawrence Rogak
Philosopher/ lawyer who wrote the book on New York PIP. No artificial intelligence, ever.
Cast Iron Co., LLC v Cast Iron Corp., 2019 NY Slip Op 08354 (NY App. Div, 1st Dept) (19 November 2019)
New York's Appellate Division, First Department, has ruled that a lease which requires a commercial tenant to "maintain" a vault space beneath a sidewalk does not also require that tenant to "repair" it.
"The lease does not unambiguously require the commercial tenant to perform structural repairs to the sidewalk vault adjacent to the leased premises. Although the lease requires the tenant to 'maintain' the vault, such a lease provision, without more, does not impose an obligation on the tenant to make structural repairs. Moreover, given that the provision of the lease at issue draws a clear distinction between the landlord's obligation to 'maintain and repair the Building both exterior and interior' and the tenant's obligation to 'maintain and make all necessary non-structural repairs to the Premises,' the words 'maintain' and 'repair' cannot be conflated and treated as synonyms."
"Accordingly, defendant landlord did not establish entitlement to partial summary judgment on its claim for declaratory relief."