George Backer Management Corp. v. Acme Quilting Co.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Fuchsberg, J.

Early in 1970, appellant, Acme Quilting Company, entered into an agreement with the respondent, George Backer Management Corporation, for the rental of office space in the respondent’s building. The lease the parties ultimately signed included an escalation clause under which increases are keyed to certain wage rate increases. The dispute in this case, in the main raising issues of ambiguity, mutual mistake, fraud and unconscionability, revolves about that clause.1

The clause is paragraph 39(b) of the lease. It provides that *215if, in any year of the lease, "the…