500 Fifth Avenue, Inc. v. Dalsheim

The court is here holding that, in dealing with percentage rent leases, the rental that may be charged is not that payable on the statutory freeze date — the situation in all other cases — but rather the rental provided for in a lease in force when the statute became effective, which was about a year after the freeze date. The consequence of such a decision is to lay down a different rule for percentage rent leases and to sanction whatever rent a landlord chose to exact, without regard to the amount called for by the lease in force on the freeze date. In my judgment, such a construction, not…