Fudge v. United Urban Indian Council, Inc.

BRIGHTMIRE, Chief Judge.

The ultimate question in this commercial lease dispute is whether there was an executed oral modification of a lease agreement after the tenant relinquished a portion of the leased premises. The trial court held there was not, awarded the landlord damages for breach of the original lease and denied the tenant’s counterclaim for overpaid rent.

We hold, however, there was a modification of the lease and reverse.

I

In May 1984 the defendant tenant, United Urban Indian Council, Inc., a vocational training program funded through the U.S. Department of Labor, negotiated for the…