Saul Subsidiary II Ltd. Partnership v. Venator Group Specialty, Inc.

GLICKMAN, Associate Judge:

This appeal arises out of a commercial lease dispute between Saul Subsidiary II Limited Partnership (“Saul”), the landlord, and F.W. Woolworth Co. (‘Woolworth”), now known as Venator Group Specialty, Inc., the tenant. We are called upon to construe a provision of the lease that obligated Woolworth to pay stipulated rent in the event it vacated the demised premises. The case turns primarily on the meaning of the term “vacate.” The trial judge construed that term to mean the tenant’s physical act of ceasing operations in the premises cowpled with the expressed…