Title: Kopesky v. Precision Gasket Company
Citation: 156 N.W.2d 205
Docket Number: 40843
State: Minnesota
Issuer: Minnesota Supreme Court
Date: February 2, 1968

156 N.W.2d 205 (1968) Philomene M. KOPESKY, Appellant, v. PRECISION GASKET COMPANY, Respondent. No. 40843. Supreme Court of Minnesota. February 2, 1968. K. Maxfield Otto, Hopkins, for appellant. Robert P. Harriman, Hopkins, for respondent. SHERAN, Justice. Appeal from an order of the Municipal Court of Hennepin County denying plaintiff's alternative motion for amended findings or a new trial. Action was brought by plaintiff for rentals alleged to be due under a lease executed August 15, 1959, for a 5-year period commencing September 1 of that year. The dispute occurs because of this provision of the lease: *206 The tenancy terminated by agreement on August 1, 1964. This suit involves the 1963 real estate taxes which became payable in 1964 and the 1964 real estate taxes which became payable in 1965. The trial court found: Plaintiff's claim for rent representing the 1964 taxes payable in 1965 in the amount of $617.43 was rejected. On this appeal the only question of significance is whether the trial court erred in failing to find that taxes assessed in 1964 (but not payable until January 1, 1965, and not delinquent as to one-half of the amount assessed until after May 31, 1965, and as to the balance until after October 31, 1965) should be used as a measure of the tenant's rental obligation under the lease. If the obligation of the lessee was to pay as additional rent all taxes levied and assessed during the term of the lease, the rental obligation of the tenant would have included the 1964 real estate taxes. See, Craig v. Summers, 47 Minn. 189, 49 N.W. 742; Merle-Smith v. Minnesota Iron Co. 195 Minn. 313, 262 N.W. 865; Whitney v. Leighton, 225 Minn. 1, 30 N.W.2d 329. But this lease is not so phrased. The reference is to "taxes paid by the lessor * * during the term of this lease." The additional amount becomes payable at the time of the rent payment on or next after the date when penalty or loss of the customary discount begins to accrue for nonpayment of such taxesa date which must occur, if at all, during the period of the lease. The only way the provision as to the time of payment of the increased rental can be given operative meaning is to tie it to taxes actually paid by the lessor (as distinguished from taxes levied and assessed) during the term. We do not concern ourselves with the question of whether the trial judge correctly measured defendant's rental obligation for the year 1964 by a figure representing approximately 8/12's of the 1963 taxes rather than by a figure representing either one-half of the taxes payable in 1964 or the whole thereof because that phase of the matter is not properly before us.[1] Affirmed. [1] We note that Minn.St. 272.31 has been amended with respect to the date that the lien of real estate taxes attaches. L.1967, c. 578. But this does not affect our problem here which involves the distinction between assessment and payment.