Millison v. Clarke

This landlord’s action for rent under a commercial lease involves the defense of surrender by operation of law on which a summary judgment in favor of the tenant was based. The principal question presented is whether the legal consequence of a reletting by a landlord to a new tenant, for a term extending beyond the expiration of the lease to the original, defaulting tenant, is the acceptance of a surrender, without regard to factors indicating the landlord’s intent to the contrary. Phrased another way, the question presented is whether reletting beyond the original term is a factor of such…