On March 15, 2023, the Superior Court rendered a judgment in a commercial leasing matter in which our client, the owner and lessor of a warehouse in Montréal, was being pursued for over $100,000.00 by a former tenant.
The dispute turned on an interpretation of a clause in the lease, which established the tenant’s responsibility for payment of a proportionate share of the warehouse’s operating costs. According to the tenant, the clause had been misconstrued by the parties and resulted in an overpayment of rent to the lessor. The Court was thus asked to determine whether the lessor was obligated to restitute sums to the tenant.
The Court accepted the arguments relating to the rules of contractual interpretation presented by Samuel St-Jean, and ultimately dismissed the tenant’s claim in its entirety.
Samuel St-Jean is a litigator in our Civil and Commercial Litigation Group. He frequently represents landlords and tenants of industrial and commercial properties before the Quebec courts.