Court Opinion

ID: 9513198
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:32:42.602226+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:46.378533
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Chief Justice,
concurring specially.
I agree with the majority that the twenty-year statute of limitations in section 28-01-05, NDCC, is not applicable. I am less convinced that the ten-year statute in section 28-01-15(2), NDCC, applies rather than the six-year statute in section 28-01-16(1), *771NDCC. As the majority notes, “the determination of which statute of limitations governs a particular action depends on the actual nature of the subject matter of the case.”
Here, the issue revolves around the clause providing for excess rent. It has little or nothing to do with the actual conveyance (lease) of the property. In Signal Management Corp. v. Lamb, 541 N.W.2d 449 (N.D.1995), we observed that under the common law view of a lease as a conveyance, if the landlord elected to accept the surrender of the premises upon abandonment by the lessee, the lease was terminated and there was no continuing obligation for rent. Alternatively, the landlord could decline to accept the offer of surrender implicit in an abandonment and continue to hold the tenant liable for rent as it came due. We recognized this common law approach was the subject of sharp criticism and observed that the “dual nature of a lease as both a contract and a conveyance of an interest in land has important implications for resolving disputes between landlords and tenants,” Signal Management Corp. v. Lamb, 541 N.W.2d at 452, and held that because the law of leases is a blend of property concepts and contractual doctrines, the concept of mitigation of damages must be considered in determining whether a landlord accepted a surrender of the lease by reletting the property after it was abandoned by the tenant.
It seems to me that similar principles apply here, i.e., that the subject matter of the dispute is a contractual dispute rather than one of the conveyance (lease) itself, and that the six-year statute of limitations applicable to contracts better fits this action. Cases such as Schmidt v. Grand Forks Country Club, 460 N.W.2d 125 (N.D.1990), in which the dispute was an action for rescission based on failure of consideration, tacitly recognize the nature of the subject matter of the case as more of a basic contract dispute rather than one involving a dispute over the title to real property.
Because it is not necessary, for purposes of the issues before us, to decide that issue now, I do not join that part of the majority opinion (III A) holding the ten-year statute applies. However, I concur in the result.