Viro Realty Corp. v. Belmont

The business emergency rent control law here applicable (L. 1945, ch. 314, as amd. by L. 1946, ch. 273, effective March 30, 1946) was passed to prevent exaction of unreasonable and oppressive agreements for payment of rent for business space under prevailing conditions that caused, as the act declares, a breakdown in the normal processes of bargaining and freedom of contracts. In enacting the statute, the Legislature obviously intended to protect prospective tenants out of possession as well as tenants in possession on that date. Indeed, tenants in possession were in far less need of…