BarbriSFCourseDetails

Course Details

This CLE course will guide landlord and tenant counsel on contractual and common law defenses in breach of lease cases due to failure to pay rent. The panel will address recent case law regarding how courts have analyzed claims of frustration of purpose, impossibility, and other common law defenses.

Faculty

Description

Commercial landlords and tenants should understand the evolving case law related to available defenses where the tenant is unable to pay rent. Many lessons were learned during the pandemic, e.g., effectively using contractual force majeure clauses or, alternatively, common law defenses to seek relief; and case law has evolved accordingly.

Often-used common law defenses include impossibility of performance, commercial impracticability, and frustration of purpose. Counsel for commercial landlords and tenants should know how courts are ruling on contractual and common law defenses to prepare the best case moving forward. Defense counsel must also understand the state specifics related to common law defenses such as what qualifies as an impossibility and when and how a force majeure clause may override the availability of this common law defense.

Listen as our expert panel reviews the status of notable landlord-tenant cases that have utilized the common law doctrines of impossibility and frustration of purpose. The panel will advise on best practices when this defense is asserted and when, in the alternative, the contract language will be the determining factor.

Outline

  1. Contractual vs. common law defenses in commercial leases
    1. Force majeure
    2. Impossibility
    3. Frustration of purpose
    4. Commercial impracticability
  2. Notable recent state decisions
  3. Best practices

Benefits

The panel will review these and other relevant topics:

  • What are the common law doctrines/defenses used in commercial landlord-tenant cases?
  • How did the pandemic affect the evolution of case law related to certain contractual and common law defenses, and what are current cases demonstrating the viability of these defenses today?
  • When must a tenant rely on the force majeure clause in a lease?