FOOD FAIR STORES, INC., APPELLANT,
v.
HARTE-PEN-TEQ ENTERPRISES, LTD., AND SUPERX DRUGS OF FLORIDA, INC., APPELLEES

Fla. 1st DCA | 1973-03-29
No. R-415
SPECTOR, C. J., and CARROLL, DONALD K., J., concur.
275 So. 2d 281 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1973) Positive Treatment
Cited by 1 case

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Synopsis

A dispute arose between a shopping center landlord and a tenant regarding whether the tenant could operate a prescription drug department in its discount department store. The trial court interpreted an ambiguous lease provision against the tenant, and the appellate court affirmed, finding the lower court's interpretation reasonable and well-supported.


Holding

The trial court's interpretation of the ambiguous lease provision is affirmed. The court found the tenant lacked the right to operate a prescription drug department, and this interpretation is reasonable, logical, and in conformity with established principles of contract interpretation.


Headnotes

[1] A court's interpretation of a lease contract provision is affirmed when it is as reasonable and logical as the interpretation urged by the appealing party.

[2] When parties to a contract fail to clearly define a disputed term, they may be bound by a court's interpretation of that term.

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Key Quotes

“By their actions both the landlord and the tenant entered into a lease contract with a built-in lawsuit which was bound to result in litigation when their conflicting interests reached the point of collision.”

Describes how the parties' failure to clearly resolve their dispute in the lease necessarily led to litigation.

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Facts & Procedural History

Food Fair Stores, Inc., intended to operate a discount department store in a shopping center owned by Harte-Pen-Teq Enterprises. Before executing the …

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Opinion of the Court
WIGGINTON, Judge.

WIGGINTON, Judge.

Defendant has appealed an adverse final judgment rendered by the Circuit Court of Escambia County which tried the case without a jury.

The sole question presented by this appeal involves an interpretation of a lease contract entered into between appellee-landlord and appellant-tenant. Before the lease was formalized for execution a discussion arose between the parties as to whether appellant, who intended to operate a discount department store in the shopping center owned by the landlord, would be permitted to dispense prescription drugs as a part of its overall operation. It is apparent from an examination of the record that appellant desired the lease to be so drafted as to permit it to operate such a prescription drug department if in the future it elected to do so. It is equally clear that appellee-landlord did not want the lease to be so drafted as to grant such right to appellant which would preclude the landlord from entering into a lease with some other tenant granting it the exclusive right to operate a drug store whose principal business would be the dispensing of prescription drugs.

The parties argued back and forth between themselves in an attempt to agree on language that would permit each party to enjoy the rights it wished to preserve to itself, which effort proved futile. In order not to permit this dispute to prevent consummation of the lease, neither of the parties insisted upon including in the contract a provision which in clear and unmistakable language would have preserved their position on this issue. Instead, the parties agreed on the provision which forms the crux of this action, the meaning of which is so ambiguous and uncertain that the parties are in violent disagreement as to its meaning and intent. After agreeing upon such provision, the lease was formalized and executed by the parties. By their actions both the landlord and the tenant entered into a lease contract with a built-in lawsuit which was bound to result in litigation when their conflicting interests reached the point of collision. They were evidently content to rely on the courts to do for them that which they failed or refused to do for themselves. The inevitable occurred, and this litigation resulted.

Appellant’s quarrel with the trial court’s findings as to the intent of the parties concerns itself primarily with the weight and credibility of conflicting testimony which were resolved by the court adverse to its position. The interpretation placed by the court upon the pertinent provisions of the lease contract dealing with the subject under consideration appears to us to be equally as reasonable, logical, and in conformity with established principles of law as does the interpretation which appellant urges as grounds for reversal. Appellant having failed to demonstrate the correct*283ness of its position or an error of law committed by the trial court, the judgment appealed is affirmed.

SPECTOR, C. J., and CARROLL, DONALD K., J., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Schoninger v. Union OIL Co. OF Cal., 514 So. 2d 430 (Fla. 3d DCA 1987)
    …nt with a reasonable interpretation of the responsibility of the parties to the lease and error not having been made to appear, we affirm. Hemphill v. Pesat, 98 Fla. 124, 123 So. 561 (1929); Food Fair Stores, Inc. v. Harte-Pen-TEQ Enterprises, Ltd., 275 So. 2d 281 (Fla. 1st DCA 1973); Phipps v. Sheffman, 211 So. 2d 598 (Fla. 3d DCA 1968); Marsh v. Hartley, 109 So. 2d 34 (Fla. 2d DCA 1959). Affirmed.…

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