STATE ROOM, INC. v MA-60 STATE ASSOCAITES LLC

84 Mass App Ct 244 (2013)

FACTS

A lease set rent for the option term beginning 2010 to be determined by three appraisers.  By the agreement, the landlord chose one appraiser, the tenant chose one and those two, chose a third.  The tenant found what it called flaws in each of the appraisal figures and proposed reconsideration and modification of the findings.  The tenant did not consider the comparable properties used by the appraisers to be comparable.  The tenant did not agree with the way the appraisers determined the square foot area of the premises.  When the appraisers refused, the tenant sued asking the Court to order another appraisal.  When the landlord challenged the entire suit, the Court dismissed the case.

ISSUE

Should a Court review the appraisal figures resulting from the process set out in a lease agreement?

HOLDING

No, the appraisers finding stands, the case is dismissed.

REASONS

The parties agreed to a process in the lease and the appraisers were chosen according to the process.  There was no reason for Courts to look into the process of the appraisal determination.  Where the appraisers seem to keep within the authority under the lease, Courts accept their findings and restrict the judicial review of appraisal findings to cases claiming fraud or corruption. 

 

CHUCK COBB COMMENT

Four years into the lease extension, the Court process gives its expensive answer – case dismissed.  Some parties are never satisfied.