Language in lease not enough to get eatery (fully) off the hook

Commercial Litigation

By Paul B. Porvaznik

Paul B. Porvaznik is an attorney at Bielski Chapman, Ltd. and practices primarily in the areas of commercial litigation, landlord-tenant law, mechanic’s liens and post-judgment enforcement.

Posted July 6, 2020 10:06 AM

Topical and timely, In re Hitz, 2020 WL 2924523 [Bankr. N.D. Ill. 2020] presents as a useful quarantine-era case that interprets the scope of a force majeure clause in a restaurant lease.The debtor filed for bankruptcy protection in mid-March after failing to pay rent for that month. The creditor moved to modify the automatic stay and sought post-petition rent under 11 U.S.C. 362 and 365, respectively. In response, the restaurant debtor argued that it was excused from paying post-petition rent based on the lease’s …

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