1 Mass. App. Ct. 839 | Mass. App. Ct. | 1973
The master to whom this bill in equity was referred was justified, on the basis of his subsidiary findings, in finding that the defendant Pizza Seven Corporation (Pizza 7) committed a breach of its equipment lease to the plaintiffs by its unilateral assumption of possession and control of the plaintiffs’ restaurant, for which the equipment had been leased, without giving the written notice required by the termination provision of the lease. The master was plainly wrong, however, in concluding that Pizza 7’s subsequent notice of termination was rendered invalid by this breach. Wilkinson v. Blount Mfg. Co. 169 Mass. 379-380 (1897). And as the master also found that the termination would otherwise have been justified by the plaintiffs’ prior conduct, paragraph 2 of the final decree, which declares the equipment lease to be in full force and effect, is in error. It does not follow, as contended by the defendants, that the master was plainly wrong in finding, or that the final decree was erroneous in declaring, that the restaurant franchise granted the plaintiffs by the defendant Piece O’Pizza of America Corporation (Piece O’Pizza) is likewise still in effect. While the plaintiffs’ conduct which was found to have justified termination of the equipment lease would also have justified termination of the contemporaneously executed franchise
So ordered.