Vereit Real Estate, L.P. v. Fitness International, LLC
A commercial gym tenant stopped paying rent during the COVID-19 closure orders and won summary judgment below on force majeure and the equitable doctrines of impossibility, impracticability and frustration of purpose. The Third DCA reversed and directed entry of judgment for the landlord, holding the force majeure clause excused only acts the lease actually required (paying rent, which the closure orders did not prevent) and expressly excluded failures curable by the payment of money.
Key facts
- Vereit Real Estate, L.P., a landlord, sued Fitness International, LLC, a commercial gym tenant, for unpaid rent after the tenant stopped paying during COVID-19 government closure orders.
- The trial court granted summary judgment for the tenant based on force majeure and the equitable doctrines of impossibility, impracticability, and frustration of purpose.
- +2 more key facts with a free trial
Why it matters
This is one of the leading Florida appellate decisions rejecting a commercial tenant's COVID-closure rent defenses, and it gives landlords a clean template: separate the tenant's right to operate from its independent… — full analysis with a trial
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