Childs v. Warner Brothers Southern Theatres
Supreme Court of North Carolina
172 S.E. 902 (N.C. 1934)
Childs (plaintiff), the property owner, consented to an assignment of a commercial lease from the original lessee to Warner Brothers (defendant), but when Warner Brothers later assigned the lease to Carolina Theatres without obtaining Childs's advance consent, Childs informed Warner Brothers it would continue holding Warner Brothers liable for rent; when Carolina Theatres defaulted, Childs sued Warner Brothers for the unpaid rent, and the trial court ruled for Childs, prompting Warner Brothers's appeal.
Whether a lessor's consent to an initial assignment of a lease waives the lease's consent requirement for a subsequent reassignment by the assignee, when the non-assignment clause is drafted to bind all assignees of the original lessee.