Court Opinion

ID: 9631280
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 10:33:32.881544+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:51.627569
License: Public Domain

Justice LOHR
dissenting:
The majority holds that the tenant, Total Petroleum, Inc. (Total), should receive $77,-000 of the proceeds paid in a condemnation proceeding by Boulder Urban Renewal Authority (BURA) for real property designated by BURA as parcels 4, 5 and 6. I respectfully dissent.
This case presents an issue of interpretation of a written lease. Carter M. Farrar, Sr., and Marjorie J. Farrar (landlords) were the owners of real property denominated as parcels 4, 5 and 6, which contained a total of about 88,000 square feet. Total was the lessee of a gasoline service station on parcel 5, which contained approximately 18,750 square feet. The written lease set forth a specific provision for dividing the proceeds of any “award or price” received for the leased premises in condemnation. The provision is quoted in full in the majority opinion, and the agreement for dividing the proceeds specified:
(a) The Landlord shall receive and retain that part of the award or price which is attributable to the land (only) that is taken.
(b) The Tenant shall receive and retain that part of the award or price which is attributable to the improvements, better-ments and all other things situated on the land that is taken.
See 787 P.2d at 166.
Although when parcel 5 was considered in isolation, the improvements contributed to the value, the trial court found that the improvements did not enhance the value of parcels 4, 5 and 6 taken as a whole. The amount paid by BURA for parcels 4, 5 and 6 pursuant to agreement with the landlords was $1,015,440. This was based on an overall land value of $11.50 per square foot. In arriving at this amount, no value was assigned to the improvements on parcel 5. In sum, the improvements did not in fact increase the value of tracts 4, 5 and 6, and the parties assigned no value to the improvements in arriving at the price to be paid.1 Therefore, no part of the price was “attributable” to the improvements on parcel 5, and under the provisions of the lease, no part of the price was to be paid to Total. This analysis is set forth more fully in the unanimous opinion of a panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals authored by Judge Criswell, Farrar v. Total Petroleum, Inc., 765 P.2d 613 (Colo.App.1988), with which I entirely agree. I would affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

. This is not a situation in which landlords and the condemnor agree to assign values in a manner contrary to the true relative values of the land and the improvements without the agreement of the tenant and then attempt to bind the tenant by the agreed apportionment.