Court Opinion

ID: 9755893
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 20:58:27.483284+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:12.727743
License: Public Domain

Dissenting Opinion By
Mr. Justice Musmanno:
The Majority Opinion states that this case presents a question of first impression in' Pennsylvania. ■ Untrammeled, therefore, by stare decisis, unbounded by *557restrictive precedent, unencumbered by authoritative decisions, it could be hoped that that question would be considered in the clear light of reason, logic and elemental justice. It does not appear to me that that hope has been realized. Instead of deciding the case in accordance with venerated and fundamental principles of jurisprudence and fair dealing between business men, the Majority has enumerated a number of out-of-State cases, none of which presents facts exactly in point with those in the case at bar. Collectively these foreign cases make up an archipelago of decisions in the vast sea of jurisprudence on leases, but not one of them touches the mainland of the fundamental principle that a lease is, after all, only a contract and is accordingly to be enforced in accordance with its provisions as ascertained from the wording of the contract. In Corpus Juris Secundum, (17 C.J.S. 683) we find this most rudimentary rule of construction of contracts: “A court will not resort to construction where the intent of the parties is expressed in clear and unambiguous language, but will enforce or give effect to the contract according to its terms, in the absence of fraud or other grounds affecting enforcement according to its terms.”
There is no allegation of fraud in this case, nor is there any other ground which affects enforcement according to its terms. In the most unambiguous language that one could desire, the lease-contract here states that the premises are: “to be used and occupied by said Lessee in the business of washing and cleaning automobiles within the scope of the business of the Philadelphia MINIT-MAN CORPORATION, aforesaid, upon completion of and subsequent to the building, erection and placing on the said premises of suitable buildings and necessary equipment relevant to *558the carrying on of the business aforesaid, and for no other purpose”*
The Majority Opinion makes no attempt to explain the all-exclusive finality of the phrase for no other purpose. Instead, it discusses hypothetical situations. It says that if the plaintiff is to prevail, does this mean that the defendant would be forbidden, “if operating a retail store, from keeping it open for a fewer number of hours each day than formerly? Would it forbid him from dismissing salesmen whereby his business might be reduced in volume? Would it forbid him from discontinuing any department of his business even though he found it to be operating at a loss?
There is nothing in the contract about a retail store; the agreement is empty of any reference to the dismissing of salesmen; the lease is silent on any subject referring to discontinuance of a department of business. The lease, however, is saturated with provisions and conditions to the effect that the lessee may not use the premises except for the purpose of washing and cleaning automobiles. But the Majority avoids discussing the washing and cleaning of automobiles.
The lease says further that the lessee covenants to pay 12y2 °/o on the amount of gross sales over and above the minimum rental of $1800 per annum. Gross sales is defined in the contract as follows: “The term ‘gross sales’ as herein used shall be held to include the sales price of all merchandise of every sort whatsoever sold, including all charges for all services performed by the Lessee in the course of the business aforesaid.” The “business aforesaid,” of course is the cleaning and washing business.
The Lessee covenants that: “it will keep separate and accurate records of the gross sales covering all *559business done or transacted in, upon, or from said demised premises.” The Lessee agrees: “to build, erect and complete all necessary buildings on tlie said demised premises in order to begin and carry on the said business aforesaid, including all utilities necessary for the operation and occupation of said building in the manner provided herein.”
I repeat that the “business aforesaid” is the business of cleaning and washing automobiles.
Paragraph 6 of the lease prohibits the lessee from going into the liquor business and then declares that the premises shall not be “used for any other purpose than as above specified, nor make any change in the business purposes as now understood and agreed, without written consent of the Lessor first had and obtained.”
Thus, the lease, in the clearest and most direct phraseology possible, declares that (1) the premises are to be used only for cleaning and washing automobiles; (2) that the lessee is to pay to the lessor a certain percentage on the revenue derived from cleaning and washing automobiles; (3) the lessee is to erect a suitable structure and install necessary equipment for cleaning and washing automobiles; and (4) the lessee cannot use the premises for any purpose (except he have written consent from the lessor) other than cleaning and washing automobiles. With this inundation of expressed purpose, how can the Majority say that if there is one thing the defendant is not required to do, it is the cleaning and washing of automobiles?
Paragraph 11 of the lease-contract declares that the lessee covenants and agrees that: “if default be made in the punctual payment of said rent or any part thereof, or in the observance of performance of any of said conditions or agreements, The Lessor may, without no*560tice to the Lessee, and without demand for rent due, terminate the Lease ”
This paragraph says further that the lessee shall pay all costs and expenses involved in making collection of the said rent and in “enforcing any of the provisions” of the lease.
How can it be said that the agreement to use the premises only for washing and cleaning automobiles is not a provision of the lease?
To allow the defendant corporation here to repudiate the agreement it so specifically made and the conditions it so definitively accepted, is to read out of a contract what is so clearly in it and give meaning to language which is directly opposite to what it says. It is to make a mockery of written agreements, turn solemn obligations into writing exercises and introduce the courts into every agreement on the basis that they may be called upon to revaluate, reinterpret and rewrite the agreement.
After the parties had entered into the solemn contract already amply quoted from, they executed an addendum as if to reconfirm what they had already said in their original agreement. In the very last paragraph of this addendum appears this supremely significant statement: “Notwithstanding any of the provisions to the contrary, therein contained in said original lease agreement, it is expressly understood that a certain Minit Man Automatic Oar Washing Machine, intended to be installed in the demised premises, shall at the termination of the lease remain the sole and exclusive property of the Lessee, who shall be privileged to remove the same at such time without any interference on the part of the Lessor.”
Could anything be more confirmatory than this of the fact that the cleaning and washing of automobiles *561was the business that the lessee intended to devote himself to?
The lower court made the following observation in its Opinion: “We are told the lease before us was drawn by plaintiff’s attorney; it would have been a simple matter for him to have inserted in the lease, as he drew it, a clause requiring full use of defendant’s operation and a forfeiture in the event of his failure.”
There is no doubt that if the drawer of the contract could have anticipated that the meaning of simple English could be so beclouded in its reading, he might have added the suggested clause and perhaps even illustrated it with pictures, but I doubt that even that could have made it clearer that the lessee agreed, promised, covenanted and obligated himself to use the demised premises for cleaning and washing automobiles.
The Majority Opinion says that there is nothing “in the present case to indicate that defendant’s action in discontinuing the washing and cleaning of cars except as incidental to simonizing and polishing was taken other than in good faith and in the exercise of legitimate business judgment.” The record is absolutely devoid of any factual foundation upon which to erect a superstructure of such laudation. Furthermore, the defendant corporation has no right in the law to use business judgment which will work an advantage to itself at the expense and loss of the other party to the agreement. The plaintiff also used what he considered was “legitimate business judgment” when he offered to lease his property to the defendant on the basis that the defendant would use the premises for the business of washing and cleaning automobiles. Even the name of the defendant corporation is one identified throughout the area with the cleaning and washing of automobiles.
*562The lower court says that the phrase “cleaning and washing automobiles” is descriptive, rather than directive. The paragraph in the lease describing the premises is certainly descriptive. Is it any less effective on that account? The manner in which the rent is to be paid is descriptive. Does that mean it can be ignored?
I dissent in this case not only on legal principles but in defense of the integrity of the English language. Despite the tortuous reasoning in the opinion of the lower court and despite the citations quoted in the opinion of the majority of this Court, I can only conclude that cleaning and washing automobiles means the cleaning and washing of automobiles.

All italics mine.