Professional Savings Bank v. Fowler

Appellees, the Fowlers, are the fee owners of a Miami Beach hotel which was subject to a ninety-nine-year leasehold. They brought suit seeking the forfeiture of the remaining forty-five years of the leasehold against the appellant assignees [hereinafter “lessee”] of the lease. The lessee interposed the defense of equitable estop-pel, claiming that enforcement of the lease’s defaults would result in an unconscionable and inequitable eviction. At a bench trial, the evidence and testimony established that the hotel, contrary to the lessee’s obligation under the lease, had become dilapidated to…