Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.
When a tenant erroneously pays more rent than a lease requires, can the tenant recover the amount of the excess payments? Answering that question requires exploration of the perplexing voluntary payment doctrine, which continues to rear its head in New York cases.
The Problem
Suppose a lease requires a tenant to pay rent, but obligates the landlord to provide heat without charge to the tenant. The landlord then sends monthly invoices to the tenant, itemizing the rent reserved under the lease, with an additional charge for heat. If the tenant pays the rent only, but not the charge for heat, the landlord will not be entitled to collect for the heat, because the lease itself makes it clear that the tenant is not obligated to pay for it. But suppose the tenant pays the full amount of the invoice, and later seeks to recover the amounts it has erroneously paid to landlord. Shouldn't the lease control here as well, permitting tenant to recover? The voluntary payment doctrine, applied by New York courts in a number of leading cases, suggests that the answer is “no.”
ENJOY UNLIMITED ACCESS TO THE SINGLE SOURCE OF OBJECTIVE LEGAL ANALYSIS, PRACTICAL INSIGHTS, AND NEWS IN ENTERTAINMENT LAW.
Already a have an account? Sign In Now Log In Now
For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?