Court Opinion

ID: 9687926
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:53:36.31054+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:33.114542
License: Public Domain

REES, Justice
(dissenting).
I must respectfully dissent.
The conclusion of the majority that the phrase “starting this date” is referable to the date April 22, 1959, is reached when and only when the addendum to the lease is read as an isolated instrument separate from the original lease. Irrespective of the fact that the supplemental instrument characterized as an addendum was executed some ten months subsequent to the date of the execution of the original lease, it by its very terms provided that the only purpose and sole intent of the parties in executing the supplemental instrument was to change the annual rental from $100 per year to $1000 per year. It does not provide for any change in the lease term, that is to say, the period for which the rental arrangement was to continue. The original lease was for a period of 20 years, to commence on the date of the execution of the original lease, June 16, 1958. The effect of the majority’s view is to bring about a' result which is both uncontemplated by the parties and unreasonable. By way of illustration: if the plaintiffs were to pay $1000 as advance royalties on April 22, 1977, this would cover a period up to and including April 22, 1978, but under the duration clause of the original lease the relationship of the parties arising thereunder expires on June 16, 1978, approximately two months later. The parties therefore would be faced with a two-months’ hiatus they in no way intended, and which the lease and its addendum do not contemplate.
I feel that by giving to the operative language of the original contract and the supplemental instrument (the addendum) its plain and ordinary meaning, and interpreting both instruments in the context in which the phraseology of both instruments is used, that the phrase “starting this date” must refer to the date of the original instrument, bearing in mind the fact that the obvious intendment of the parties was only to insert in lieu of paragraph 4(c) of the original lease the paragraph appearing in the addendum. To me this is the obvious intent of the parties.
I would affirm the trial court.
LARSON and BECKER, JJ., join in this dissent.