A commercial tenant’s complaint about a leaking roof has given the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, the state’s highest court, the opportunity to repudiate over a century of legal thought about the nature of commercial leases and a tenant’s right to terminate a lease on account of the landlord’s failure to make repairs. Is this revolution in leasing law coming to a mall or strip center near you? If so, what can you do about it?
In Wesson vs. Leone Enterprises, Inc., decided in September 2002, the Massachusetts high court brushed aside the findings of the trial judge that the landlord’s failure constituted constructive eviction of the tenant justifying the tenant’s termination of the lease. Instead, the Court decided to "abandon the common law rule of independent covenants of commercial leases in favor of the modern rule of mutually dependent covenants . . ." to reach the same result. In doing so, the Court bypassed the role of the so-called "covenant of quiet enjoyment"
