Photo: J. Albert Diaz/ALM Force Majeure Clauses in Commercial Leases: Recent Appellate Developments
In recent weeks, the Appellate Division, First Department has twice considered the issue of whether a force majeure clause can excuse the obligation to pay rent under a commercial lease. In their Landlord-Tenant column, Gary Rosenberg and Alexander Lycoyannis discuss these cases.
May 31, 2022 at 12:57 PM
7 minute read
Landlord Tenant Law
Although—hopefully—New York is long past the COVID-related lockdowns that we saw two years ago, cases involving disputes over unpaid rent accruing during the spring and summer of 2020 are still winding their way through the court system. In that regard, commercial landlord-tenant litigators are by now well aware that the defenses of impossibility of performance and frustration of purpose are largely unavailable to commercial tenants whose businesses were negatively affected by COVID-19 (see e.g. "The 'COVID Defenses': An Appellate Update," April 6, 2022; "Is It the Beginning of the End of the 'COVID Defenses?,'" June 1, 2021).
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