Game Place, L. L.C. v. Fredericksburg 35, LLC

OPINION BY JUSTICE D. ARTHUR KELSEY

**399 A commercial lessor, Fredericksburg 35, LLC, sued a lessee, The Game Place, L.L.C., 1 for unpaid rent under a 15-year lease after The Game Place vacated the leasehold prior to the expiration **400 of the 15-year term. The Game Place demurred, claiming that the lease was unenforceable under the Statute of Conveyances, Code § 55-2, because it did not have either the common-law formality of a seal or the relaxed seal substitutes available under Code § 11-3.

Reasoning that "[t]he law looks at substance not form," J.A. at 9, the trial court rejected The Game…