Southwest Fuel Management, Inc. v. Ampak-I Enterprises, Inc. CA2/6

Filed 12/19/22 Southwest Fuel Management, Inc. v. Ampak-I Enterprises, Inc. CA2/6 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

SECOND APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION SIX

SOUTHWEST FUEL 2d Civ. No. B314590 MANAGEMENT, INC., (Super. Ct. No. 56-2020- 00545208-CU-UD-VTA) Plaintiff and Respondent, (Ventura County)

v.

AMPAK-I ENTERPRISES, INC.,

Defendant and Appellant.

Ampak-I Enterprises, Inc. (Ampak), the tenant, appeals a judgment for unlawful detainer rendered in favor of plaintiff Southwest Fuel Management, Inc. (Southwest), the landlord, involving a commercial lease. We affirm. FACTS Ampak, the tenant, entered into a 10-year commercial lease with Limoneira Mercantile, LLC (Limoneira) in 2009. Kaleem Syed is the owner of Ampak. Ampak operates a Del Taco restaurant on the leased premises.

The lease provided that Ampak had the option to extend the lease for 60 months after the expiration of the lease by providing “written notice of such election” at “least 3 but not more than 6 months prior to the date that the option period would commence, time being of the essence.” The period to exercise the option to extend the lease was between April 6 and July 6, 2019. On May 19, 2019, Syed e-mailed the representatives of the lessor stating, among other things, “I will need some time to meet with you and go through with the Options and the New Construction. Please let me know when we can meet.” On July 20,, Syed e-mailed a notice to renew the lease. Limoneira did not consider this notice to be timely because the option period had expired. The lease subsequently ended. In August 2019, Limoneira sold the property and assigned the lease to Southwest. On May 5,2020, Southwest sent a letter to Ampak stating: 1) Southwest is now the owner; 2) Ampak had not taken action to timely renew the lease; 3) consequently, Ampak was now on a month-to-month tenancy; and 4) Southwest is now giving Ampak a 30-day notice to terminate the tenancy. On September 8, 2020, Southwest filed an unlawful detainer action against Ampak seeking to evict it from the premises. At trial the court rejected Ampak’s defense that Southwest waived its right to bring an eviction action because it had received Ampak’s rent checks. Syed testified that he had timely renewed the lease, but the trial court did not credit this testimony. The court found his July 20, 2019, e-mail was a notice to renew the lease. But this notice did not fall within the period to exercise the option and the notice was therefore untimely. It