Burns v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co.

The plaintiffs sue for rent alleged to be due them for the period from May 1, 1941, to July 15, 1941, on a lease of a store in Malden. The defendant contends that the lease terminated by its own terms on April 30, 1941, and that no rent accrued thereafter.

The question can be settled by a construction of the language of the lease. The habendum clause defines the term of the lease as “from the first day of May 1938, to the last day of April, 1941,” but this must be construed in connection with a so called “postponement clause,” also included in the lease, which reads, “Whereas part of the…