Rathbun v. Cato Corp., 93 S.W.3d 771 (2002)

Citation: Rathbun v. Cato Corp., 93 S.W.3d 771 (2002)
Parent Document: Rathbun v. Cato Corp., 93 S.W.3d 771 (2002)
Jurisdiction: Missouri (state)
Effective Date: 2002-11-21
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1890960/rathbun-v-cato-corp/ ↗

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The thrust of Lessor's argument under this point is that, since Lessee was not permitted to introduce evidence concerning traffic patterns at the shopping center or national studies and statistics on that issue, the court's finding regarding the lack of similarity of a hardware store to a grocery store is not supported by any evidence. In fact, Lessee's evidence did include testimony that it needed the traffic generated by businesses like the major anchor tenants identified in the Lease (grocery stores and discount stores) because they bring in the female shoppers it needs for its business. As indicated earlier, there was testimony about the importance of female customers to Lessee's *784 business, the number of times women go to a grocery store each week, and that the premises were leased after the customer traffic in Consumers had been observed. Such testimony was based on personal observations by the witness and information gained from a national trade organization. There also was evidence that a witness had recently observed the Sutherland's store in question, finding that there were seven cars in the parking lot, with nine people in the store, only one of whom was a woman. Finally, there was evidence that Lessee would not have entered into the Lease without the Inducement provision and the identification of Consumers and Wal-Mart as major anchor tenants.

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