Opinion ID: 1191461
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the subtenant could alone exercise the option to extend the lease's primary term

Text: The legal norms governing the landlord-tenant relationship are unique because two pervasive theories  those from the law of grants and those of contracts  merge to govern disputes arising from the landlord-tenant interaction. Accommodation of these two theories is necessary to provide the framework of analysis to be employed in resolving the present issue; namely, does the subtenant alone (i.e. without being joined by the tenant) have the power to exercise the original lease's option for an additional term in the face of the landlord's objection? The law of grants holds that a subtenant, who is in privity of estate with the original lessor, may avail himself of any covenants in the original lease which touch and concern the land (real covenants). The law of contract allows the lessor to create what the grant theory would term a real covenant personal to the lessee and hence non-assignable. By this innovation, the law of contract has emerged victorious in its struggle to vanquish the grant concept and thus attain dominance over the cluster of rights encompassed within the status created by a landlord-and-tenant relationship. A call for resolution of the issue here thus beckons us to answer these questions: A. Is the subtenant in privity of estate with the landlord? B. Does the option to extend the lease for an additional period run with the land? C. Is there anything in the lease provisions which renders the option personal to the tenant?
In order to exercise the option for a period additional to that contained in the original lease  assuming for the moment such an option runs with the land  the subtenant must be in privity of estate with the landlord. [3] This status is accorded a subtenant who takes his interest by assignment rather than by sublease. An assignment contemplates the transfer of the whole, or some severable part, of the transferor's interest for the remainder of the lease term. [4] A transfer of a non-severable portion of the lease, or one which leaves the transferor a reversion, would be a sublease. [5] The transfer of the tenant's interest in the lease to the subtenant involved two documents. One of these, entitled Assignment of Lease, transfers to the subtenant all of our estate, right, title and interest in and to said lease. Another document, entitled Sublease, likewise purports to transfer to the subtenant all of the tenant's interest in the original lease. It further provides that the tenant, upon appropriate notice from the subtenant, will exercise for the benefit of the subtenant the original lease's options for additional terms. Thus it is arguable that this document reserved a portion of the tenant's leasehold [6]  the possibility that the tenant might exercise the option for an additional period in its own favor should the subtenant fail, or not desire, to so do by notifying the tenant of its intention to extend the lease term. We have little difficulty reaching the conclusion that the tenant and subtenant intended to effect an assignment rather than a sublease. Firstly, the effect of the two documents must necessarily culminate in a legal assignment. It is unclear why two instruments, apparently executed simultaneously, were used to effect the single transfer. If the assignment preceded the sublease, the tenant had nothing left of its estate to reserve for itself. [7] Therefore, execution of the sublease would be ineffective to create a right in the tenant to exercise the renewal in its own favor. Likewise, if the assignment followed the sublease, the retained interest in the sublease would be considered surrendered to the subtenant by the later assignment. Secondly, and more importantly, it is clear that the parties intended that the subtenant should take the tenant's entire interest in the original lease. It is inconceivable that a tenant desiring to retain an interest in a lease would execute any document which purported to convey all of our estate, right... in said lease. The only reasonable conclusion to be drawn is that a legal draftsman's overabundance of caution prompted the execution of both documents. The drawer of the language in the redundant sublease, which arguably contained reversionary language probably taken from a form contract, recognized that the tenant would have to exercise an option to extend the lease term. Since a sublessee lacks privity of estate with the original lessor-landlord, the sublessee cannot alone avail itself of a covenant in the original lease even if the covenant runs with the land. The inference that the parties intended here an assignment is further buttressed by the fact that the tenant had ceased doing business and probably had neither an interest nor a purpose in retaining for itself a reversion in the leasehold. [8]
Absent explicit contrary contractual provisions, an option to renew or to extend a lease given to a lessee by the lessor is freely assignable by the lessee. [9] The rationale for this proposition is that such an option touches and concerns the land and therefore runs with the land. [10] Because the subtenant, qua assignee, stands in privity of estate with the landlord, and since the option for an additional term runs with the land, the subtenant can alone exercise the option unless a contractual provision [11] may operate to render the option personal to the tenant.
A provision in a lease can transform what traditional grant-law theory would term a real covenant into one that is personal to the lessee and hence non-assignable. [12] Additionally, even if an option for an additional term is properly assigned, the subtenant cannot exercise an option which is different in scope from that given the tenant. [13] The only provision in the lease which, as the landlord argues, makes the option for an additional period personal to the tenant, and thus non-assignable, is the notification provision. It is urged that, by specifying that the tenant must give appropriate notice of its intention to exercise the option, the subtenant could not alone avail itself of its benefit. The cases seem to assume without discussion that the tenant's assigns [assignees] can give any requisite notification. [14] This assumption appears reasonable since the obligation to notify is merely a portion of the bundle of the tenant's rights and obligations that is transferred by assignment to the subtenant. Had the landlord intended to make the option personal to the tenant, he could have explicitly contracted for such a result. [15] Another lease clause presents greater difficulty in that it arguably renders it impossible for the subtenant to exercise the option without increasing the landlord's contractual burden created when he granted the option to the tenant. If so, then the subtenant's exercise of the option would violate the principle that the subtenant cannot exceed the scope of the option originally granted. [16] The original lease provided that the tenant would in no event escape personal liability by assigning its interest. At first blush, this provision seems merely to restate the common-law rule that, absent novation, a lessee remains personally liable for lease covenants, even after assignment, because he is still in privity of contract with the lessor. [17] If the subtenant's exercise of the option for an additional period effects at law a novation of the tenant's personal liability under the lease, then a problem would arise. Since the landlord specifically contracted for the continuing liability of the tenant after assignment, an exercise of the option by the subtenant effecting an implied-in-law novation would arguably increase the landlord's burden to an extent which exceeds the scope of the obligation he originally agreed to assume. We must hence decide whether the subtenant's exercise of the option for an additional period resulted here in an implied-in-law novation of the tenant's personal obligations under the lease. Some jurisdictions distinguish an option to renew a lease from an option to extend a lease. [18] In jurisdictions which recognize the distinction, an option to extend, when granted, is viewed as a present demise of the primary term plus any option periods. The demise is subject to defeasance should the tenant not exercise the option. [19] At the conclusion of the primary term, a mere hold-over occupancy by the tenant would constitute an election to exercise the option to extend. An option to renew, on the other hand, is viewed as a present grant of only the primary term of the lease coupled with a covenant to effect a grant of the option term in the future. [20] It is said that an option to renew requires the execution of a new lease for its effectuation. It is arguable that Oklahoma makes the distinction between an option to renew and an option to extend. [21] Assuming that the option in question here is one for a renewal, it then becomes arguable that the subtenant's execution of the requisite new lease, which would govern the option period, would effectuate a novation of the tenant's liability. [22] We need not reach this issue because we conclude, and hence hold, that the option granted to the tenant in the instant case was an extension. A tenant does not escape liability for the extension period after his subtenant exercises the option to extend. [23] Since the execution of a new lease is not required for an exercise of the option to extend, the tenant's obligation under the original lease continues for the entire period demised in the original lease and includes the extension period. [24] In jurisdictions which recognize a distinction, it is well settled that the intention of the parties controls the determination whether the option for an additional period is one to renew or one to extend. [25] If indeed the distinction is recognized by Oklahoma law, [26] then the determination whether a renewal or an extension was contemplated will be governed by the intention of the parties when they executed the original lease. [27] The lease executed by the landlord in this case specifically states that [a]ll of the terms and conditions of this Lease shall apply to and bind the Landlords and Tenant during any renewal... . The only exception was that a new base rental would be negotiated between the parties to govern the option period but, in the event negotiations did not yield a rental rate, the tenant could exercise the option at a specified maximum rental amount. It is clear that under such lease provisions the option will be considered an extension rather than a renewal. [28] Had the option as originally drawn not contemplated the increased rental up to a specified maximum amount, then perhaps a novation of the tenant's liability for the extension period would have occurred if the landlord and subtenant had negotiated an increased rental rate. But under the lease as drawn, the specified maximum rental was contemplated and hence liability up to that amount was agreed upon by the tenant at the time of the original execution. After the assignment of tenant's interest in the lease, if the subtenant exercised the option at the maximum rental rate, the tenant could not escape liability by arguing that its risk had been increased beyond that which it agreed to assume when it became obligated for the terms of the lease. We accordingly hold that the tenant remained personally liable as surety by operation of law for the subtenant's obligation to pay rent during the extension period. Since there is nothing in the lease in suit which prevents its assignee from invoking the common-law rule that the assignee of a lease can alone exercise the option to extend a lease, the decision reached by the trial court is correct. Though we leave the trial court's judgment undisturbed, as did the Court of Appeals, we nonetheless, on certiorari previously granted, vacate the opinion of the Court of Appeals. This is so because our pronouncement rests upon a rationale drastically different from that of the Court of Appeals. Trial court's judgment is affirmed. SIMMS, C.J., DOOLIN, V.C.J., and HODGES, LAVENDER, HARGRAVE and SUMMERS, JJ., concur. KAUGER, J., concurs in part and dissents in part. WILSON, J., dissents.