Blanch v. Young

Opinion

CROSBY, J.

Plaintiff appeals from summary judgment in favor of defendant attorney in a legal malpractice action.

[1018]

The subject matter of this action is a renewable five-year lease of commercial real property which ran from August 4, 1975, to August 4, 1980. The master lease granted the original tenant the right to renew “[a]t the expiration of this lease” for an additional five years, from August 4, 1980, to August 4, 1985, at the same $500 monthly rent. It did not contain an antiassignment or antisublease clause, nor was the time or method of exercising the renewal option specified. The original tenant first sublet the premises to “Fender Bender, Inc. Daniel Lee Blanch, Pres.” and then assigned his interest in the lease to Blanch.

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The sublease gave Blanch the right to renew the lease for five years at $500 per month, provided the option was exercised in writing at least 90 days before the lease expired. The assignment gave Blanch “all [the original tenant’s] right, title and interest” in the master lease.

After obtaining the assignment, Blanch sublet the premises to a third person, who also had the option to renew the sublease for five years at $500 per month on the same conditions as in the sublease to Blanch, except the 90-day cutoff date was April 14, 1980.

On September 16, 1980, the landlord filed a verified complaint in unlawful detainer against original tenant, Blanch, and Blanch’s sublessee in possession of the premises. Attorney Richard E. Young, retained by Blanch in June or July 1980 to handle legal aspects of the lease, represented all defendants in the unlawful detainer action. The defendants’ answer, verified by the original tenant, but not Blanch, asserted all defendants exercised “an option to renew the lease for the same terms and conditions for an additional five-year period by so orally advising [the landlord] between the first week of July, 1980, at the subject premises.” The landlord prevailed in the unlawful detainer action.

Blanch then filed a verified complaint against Young for legal malpractice, claiming Young negligently failed to exercise Blanch’s option to renew the lease under the terms of Blanch’s sublease with the original tenant, i.e., written notice at least 90 days before expiration of the lease. Blanch claimed $36,000 in damages, the difference between the fair rental value of the property to a sublessee, $1,100 per month for five years, and the $500 per month he would pay under the renewed lease.