Reste Realty Corp. v. Cooper

53 N.J. 444, 251 A.2d 268 (1969)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

In 1958, Cooper (D) signed a five-year lease to rent the basement of an office building for business use. The leased premises were to be used as commercial offices and not for any other purpose without the permission of the landlord. D used the premises to train his salespeople. The basement flooded every time it rained, affecting D's ability to conduct business in the basement. The resident manager knew of this recurring problem and did damage control each time it flooded. The resident manager failed to fix this problem despite constant requests from D. After one-year, the two parties signed another five-year replacement lease. There was a promise to fix the flooding problem by the resident manager. The problem was never remedied, and when the resident manager died in 1961, even the efforts to remove the water stopped. D vacated the premises. Reste Realty Corp. (P) acquired the lease, and sued D to recover rent from the remainder of the lease, claiming that D took the premises 'as is.' P also claimed that the flooding was not permanent and thus abandonment was improper. D asserted the defense of constructive eviction. The trial court entered judgment for D. The appellate court reversed. D appealed.