6 Johns. Ch. 215 | New York Court of Chancery | 1822
By the lease of 1799, the plaintiff had his election either to pay for the buildings and improvements at the valuation, or renew the lease, or redemise the lot, at such rent, and upon such terms, as the parties might agree on.
He elected to renew the lease ; and, on the day of the expiration of the lease, he tendered another lease for the lot, for the same term and rent as in the former lease; but the defendant refused to accept that or any other lease, or agree to any terms of another lease, and insisted on being paid the value of his improvements, under the covenant in the first lease.
It is contended, on the part of the defendant, that the covenant to redemise on such terms, and at such rent as the parties might agree on, is void for uncertainty. To redemise the lot at such rent, and upon such terms as might be agreed on, is, indeed, quite analogous to a covenant to let the lot for a yearly rent, to be fixed by men to be mutually chosen, and which was held, in Abeel v. Radcliff, (13 Johns. Rep. 297.) to be void for uncertainty, as no term was fixed. But here was, also, the alternative to “ renew the said lease.” That implied the same term and rent, and such a lease was tendered on the day of the termination of the first lease. The covenants in the first lease, relative to the buildings, were no necessary part of it; and it would be absurd to suppose, that an agreement to renew a lease, did necessarily imply a lease, not only of the same term and renalso, with all the covenants in the other, anil which are the accidental and not the essential parts of a lease. In the first lease, there was a covenant on the part
I am, accordingly, of opinion, that the defendant has no right to pursue his action at law on the covenant to pay the valuation, and that he must waive the benefit of that valuation, since the plaintiff has elected to renew the lease, and has actually tendered a renewal of the lease. He must accept of the lease tendered, or agree with the plaintiff to another lease upon other terms and rent; and if he will not do either, he must be content to lose his improvements, for the plaintiff reserved to himself the right, (and the defendant was a party to that reservation,) to pay the value, or renew the lease, or redemise the lot on terms to be agreed on. I am not certain, that if the lease had only provided for a redemise of the lot upon terms to be agreed upon, or to pay the valuation, that the defendant could have obsti
The following decree was entered:—
“ It is declared and adjudged, that the plaintiff, by the provisions of his lease to the defendant, was entitled to elect either to pay for the buildings, and other improvements on the lot, in the pleadings mentioned, according to the valuation thereof, or to renew the lease, or to redemise the lot, at such rent and upon such terms as the parties might agree on. And it is further declared and adjudged, that the defendant refused to accept of a redemise of the lot upon any terms; and that the plaintiff elected to renew the former lease, and did on the day of the expiration of