MSM DEVELOPMENT, LLC V. WILLIAM STEWARD ET AL. - Articles

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MSM DEVELOPMENT, LLC V. WILLIAM STEWARD ET AL.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Nov 13, 2019

Court: TN Court of Appeals

Attorneys 1:

William A. Reeves, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellant, MSM Development, LLC.

Attorneys 2:

Thomas Lynn Tarpy and John David Haines, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the appellees, William Steward and Jennifer Steward.

Judge(s): BENNETT

A commercial tenant transferred its interest in a lease to two individuals through a document called an assignment. The rental term set forth in the lease was fourteen months longer than the rental term set forth in the assignment. The transferees only paid rent for the term set forth in the assignment, and the landlord filed a complaint in an effort to collect the rent for the additional fourteen months. The trial court concluded that the document transferring the initial tenant’s interest was a sublease rather than an assignment because the term in the assignment was shorter than the term set forth in the lease. The transferor appealed, and we reverse the trial court’s judgment because the assignment specified that in the event of a conflict between the lease and the assignment, the lease controlled.

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