Court Opinion

ID: 9735999
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:39:27.370248+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:03.266631
License: Public Domain

ASHBURN, J., concurring.
I agree with all that Mr. Justice Herndon has said in his opinion (except as to jurisdiction), but I would go further and would hold (1) that the motion for summary judgment in this case is not authorized by the statute and the order granting it is void for want of jurisdiction; (2) that the provisions of paragraph 16 of the lease are unambiguous in the true sense, though ambiguous in the synthetic sense of Beneficial etc. Ins. Co. v. Kurt Hitke & Co., 46 Cal.2d 517, 524 [297 P.2d 428] ; that said paragraph says plainly that its provisions are confined to the taking of only a part of the leased premises, not applicable to a condemnation of the whole.
*648Section 437c, Code of Civil Procedure, though now applicable to all kinds of actions, does not extend in terms to a motion of one defendant directed against another defendant. We have no counterclaim or cross-complaint here. The motion for summary judgment is a special statutory proceeding and confined to the limits charted by the terms of the statute. (Cf. Werner v. Sargeant, 121 Cal.App.2d 833, 837 [264 P.2d 217].) When those limits are passed the court exceeds its jurisdiction and the order is void. As such, assuming its finality under the authorities cited by Mr. Justice Herndon, it is reversible. (3 Cal.Jur.2d § 69, p. 511.)
Paragraph 16 of the lease plainly is limited to partial condemnations, in my opinion. First it refers to the taking “of any portion”; next it provides for a ratable reduction in rent; it says the lessor shall receive “any severance damages occasioned by the taking of any portion of the leased premises.” Finally, it provides that “if the remaining portion of said building” after deducting “the portion taken” is insufficient for the conduct of lessee’s business, then the lessee shall have an option to cancel the lease. As I see it not a word or phrase of this paragraph recognizes a right of the lessor to have the entire award in the event of a complete taking; nor does this paragraph in any way attempt to provide for the event of a condemnation of the entire property; that is left to the law which gives the lessee the value of his lease out of the total award and to the lessor the balance thereof. (See 16 Cal.L.Rev. 48; 18 Cal.L.Rev. 31, 37.) The well-known purpose of such a provision as paragraph 16 is to protect the tenant against a taking of a portion of the premises without any abatement of a portion of the rent (see, Sacramento etc. Drainage Dist. v. Truslow, 125 Cal.App.2d 478, 485-486 [270 P.2d 928, 271 P.2d 930]).
In my view the order for summary judgment should be reversed because the lease plainly contemplates that the lessee must be compensated in the event of the taking of the entire property (this ground in addition to those stated by Mr. Justice Herndon). But if that be not so, the concept of ambiguity expounded in the Beneficial etc. Ins. Co. case, supra, requires that a fact issue be determined, as Mr. Justice Herndon has pointed out.
The petition of defendants and respondents for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied February 21, 1962. Tray-nor, J., and Peters, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.