McGuire v. City of Jersey City

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

HANDLER, J.

This is a property owner’s action for breach of a lease by the lessee, a municipality. The lease provided for a twenty-year term of occupancy in two adjoining buildings. The lessor was to renovate the buildings for use by the municipality’s housing court and law department. Before completion of the renovations or commencement of occupancy, the municipality notified the lessor that it would discontinue the lease at the end of the year. The municipality claimed that the ordinance approving the lease conditioned the payment of rentals on annual…