Under common law, a landlord had no duty to accept or procure a new tenant in
order to mitigate damages resulting from a tenant's abandonment or refusal to
occupy its premises. The basis for this traditional view arose from the
characterization of a lease as a conveyance of an interest in real property, and
not as a contract. In recent years, many states have enacted statutes applicable
to residential landlords that impose a duty to mitigate. There is no
consistency, however, in the case law regarding a commercial landlord's duty to
mitigate damages. The modern trend, followed in several states, is to require
commercial landlords to mitigate damages. A recent survey on the law of
mitigation indicates that the modern trend requiring mitigation is the law in
the following twenty-three states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii,
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada,
New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee,
