914 North Colony, LLC v. 99 West, LLC, 226 Conn. App. 720 (2024)

Citation: 914 North Colony, LLC v. 99 West, LLC, 226 Conn. App. 720 (2024)
Parent Document: 914 North Colony, LLC v. 99 West, LLC, 226 Conn. App. 720 (2024)
Jurisdiction: Connecticut (state)
Effective Date: 2024-07-16
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10131828/914-north-colony-llc-v-99-west-llc/ ↗

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with the defendant, which operates a restaurant on the
         premises.2 The initial term of the lease began on April
         19, 1999, and expired on April 18, 2019, but the lease
         allowed the defendant to exercise a series of four
         options to extend the lease for additional five year
         terms, and the defendant had exercised the first of these
         four options to extend the lease until 2024. Under the
         lease, the defendant is responsible for payment of the
         base rent on the nineteenth day of each month and a
         5 percent late fee for any late payments. The base rent
         amount is subject to an increase at the start of each
         five year term extension of the lease; throughout the
         events at issue in this appeal, the monthly base rent
         was $8078.34. The lease also requires the defendant to
         pay charges for real estate taxes as ‘‘additional rent’’
         and water and sewer assessments. Customarily, the
         defendant pays the base rent on the first of each month
         and pays the other charges when billed by the plaintiff.
            On March 10, 2020, Governor Ned Lamont declared a
         state of emergency because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
         Following this declaration, Governor Lamont issued
         Executive Order No. 7D, which prohibited restaurants
         from serving food or drink for on premises consump-
         tion. Following this restriction, the defendant started
         to offer takeout food but still suffered financially. On
         March 27, 2020, the defendant’s corporate affiliate, 99
         Restaurants, LLC, sent a letter to the plaintiff stating
         that, due to the financial impact of the pandemic and
         related restrictions, the defendant was excused from
         performance under the lease and would ‘‘not be paying
         the rent and other amounts due under the lease for the
         month of April, 2020.’’ The plaintiff did not reply to this
           2
             The plaintiff and the defendant are successors in interest to the original
         parties to the lease, which was executed on or about October 6, 1998. On
         December 1, 2017, the plaintiff became the successor in interest to the
         original landlord, pursuant to a warranty deed and an assignment and
         assumption agreement. As of December 4, 2001, the defendant became the
         successor in interest to the original tenant.
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