Regal Cinemas, Inc. v. First Interstate Willoughby, Ltd.

There are two ways of reading § 404 of the Lease. Interstate wins if § 4.04(a) and (b) are read as defining two different terms: “Gross Ticket Sales” and “Adjusted Gross Ticket Sales.” Regal wins if § 404(a) and (b) are instead read to provide two steps for defining a single term, “Gross Ticket Sales.” The contractual language is closer to the latter. Interstate’s version suffers from the lack of any indication in either § 404(a) or (b) that the parties are defining some term called “Adjusted Gross Ticket Sales.” When the word “adjusted” appears in § 404(a) to modify Gross Ticket Sales, it is…