Opinion ID: 1844249
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether Hertz's call center violated the ECR

Text: Bowdoin Square maintains that the trial court erred in finding as a matter of law that, because a call center was not a normal use of the premises at the time the parties entered into the ECR, Hertz's use of the Wal-Mart building as a call center violated the ECR's use provision. [10] Specifically, Bowdoin Square argues that the use provision in the ECR should be construed in a manner that does not unduly bind the parties to an inflexible arrangement. Furthermore, Bowdoin Square asserts that when general terms are used to describe acceptable uses under a lease covenant where more than one construction is possible, the proper construction would be the construction that does not limit the property's uses. The ECR use provision states: 2. Use. Buildings in the shopping center shall be used for commercial purposes of the type normally found in a retail shopping center, including, without limitation, financial institutions, service shops, offices, and retail stores.... Bowdoin Square contends that this provision contains no language limiting when the determination of what uses are normally found in shopping centers is to be made. Thus, Bowdoin Square maintains, the provision should be read to facilitate uses likely to evolve in the commercial retail market over the term of the ECR. We disagree. A plain reading of the provision reveals no language limiting the phrase normally found in a shopping centers to a certain time period, whether it be 1987, when the lease was entered, or in 2000, when this dispute arose. However, it is well settled that a contract must be construed as of the date on which it was made. Maxwell Planting Co. v. A.P. Loveman & Co., 212 Ala. 228, 232, 102 So. 45, 48 (1924); see also 17A C.J.S. Contracts § 302, at 312 (1999). Furthermore, contracts are to be construed according to the intentions of the parties and in light of the circumstances at the time they were made. Russell v. Garrett, 208 Ala. 92, 95, 93 So. 711, 713 (1922). Contracts cannot be based upon events occurring subsequent to their execution. Allright Auto Parks, Inc. v. Berry, 219 Tenn. 280, 288-89, 409 S.W.2d 361, 364 (1966); see also Howell v. Landry, 96 N.C.App. 516, 386 S.E.2d 610, 619 (1989); Piano v. Gulf Coast Inv. Corp., 429 S.W.2d 554, 556 (Tex. Civ.App.1968). Both parties offered conflicting expert testimony as to whether call centers like the one operated at Saraland Square by Hertz were commonly found in commercial shopping centers at the time this action was instituted. However, the expert witnesses called by both parties testified that in 1987, when the ECR was entered into, call centers, or other comparable facilities, did not exist. Therefore, it is undisputed that at the time Bowdoin Square and Wal-Mart executed the ECR call centers were not a use normally found in retail shopping centers. Accordingly, because the ECR must be construed as of the date on which it was made and cannot be based upon actions that occurred subsequent to its execution, the trial court did not err in holding that the Hertz call center was not a contemplated use as described in the ECR.