Eastside Exhibition Corp. v. 210 East 86th Street Corp.
Court of Appeals of New York
965 N.E.2d 246 (2012)
Eastside Exhibition (plaintiff) spent $2.75 million converting leased space into a movie theater with a specifically designed lobby, but four years into its 18-year lease, landlord 210 East 86th Street Corp. (defendant) installed cross bracing between two lobby columns to support additional building floors, taking up about 12 square feet of the theater's roughly 15,000-19,000 total square footage while somewhat narrowing foot traffic and the upstairs waiting area. Eastside stopped paying rent entirely, and after years of litigation in which its damages experts could not quantify any actual loss, it reached New York's highest court still owing nine years of back rent.
Whether a landlord's interference with a tenant's use and enjoyment of leased premises must be more than minimal to warrant complete rent abatement.