Court Opinion

ID: 9450473
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:49:38.847007+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:20.801652
License: Public Domain

LARAMORE, Judge
(dissenting):
In my opinion, under the majority’s holding, the government’s obligation under a “partial restoration” provision would never be enforceable. This result would seem to always follow, since the fair market value of the subject property would necessarily decrease when only partially restored to its prior condition., A building in such a stage of completion cannot possibly be productive since, as in this case, it can be used neither as an office building nor as a hotel. This is especially true here, since the valuation of rental property is universally based on its rate of return. The majority applies our holdings in the Spitzel and Realty Associates decisions, supra, as the proper measure of damages to the instant case. However, those cases involved provisions for complete restoration of the property. Although I do not question their correctness, I believe they should not be applied *646to instances where the government’s obligation under the lease contract is to partially restore the premises to its prior condition. These decisions are exceptions to the general rule governing damages for a breach of the covenant in a lease to restore the premises to its prior condition. They result from unusual circumstances which are not present in the instant case. In Spitzel the property could not be economically restored since it involved complicated dedudding operations; while in Realty Associates, what were once unproductive buildings in their prior condition became valuable rental property as a result of improvements made by the government. For these reasons, I think that the general rule should be applied here and plaintiff should be entitled to recover the costs of partial restoration as found by our commissioner.