Berner v. Manning
| Decision Date | 06 July 1939 |
| Docket Number | File 42251 |
| Citation | 7 Conn.Supp. 247 |
| Court | Connecticut Superior Court |
| Parties | PAUL BERNER v. FRED F. MANNING, ET AL. |
Where rent is payable at stated intervals, a separate action may be brought to recover each installment as it falls due, though all installments due and unpaid under one lease at the time an action is brought must be included in the action.
A single cause of action cannot be split, nor may a party divide his grounds of recovery and maintain successive actions thereon. Cases cannot be tried piecemeal. The rule as to splitting of causes of action, however, applies only to claims and demands which are parts of one cause of action and which are recoverable in the first instituted suit. If at the time of the commencement of an action to recover on a severable part of a claim, then capaable of recovery in such action, another severable part is incapable of recovery in that particular action, as for example, if it is not yet due it may be made the subject of a separate action without violating the rule as to the splitting of causes.
Where a lessee abandoned the leased premises and notified the lessor that it would no longer pay rent, two courses were open to the lessor. He could have accepted the surrender of the premises and agreed to a rescission of the lease, or he could have refused to accept the surrender. Where the lessor chose the latter course and recognized the continued existence of the lease, and brought an action to recover rentals then unpaid under the lease, he could, in a subsequent action recover all installments of rent unpaid subsequent to the judgment in the first action.
Lewis J. Somers, of Meriden, for the Plaintiff.
Cornelius J. Danaher, of Meriden, for the Defendants.
Memorandum of decision in action on guaranty.
O'SULLIVAN, J.
By the provisions of a written contract, the plaintiff leased certain premises in Troy, New York, to Theodore Manning Company for the term of ten years commencing on May 1, 1927. The rent reserved was $63,250, payable in monthly installments of varying amounts. The defendants, by a separate instrument in writing, guaranteed among other things the payment of the rent. The lessee entered into and occupied premises until May 1, 1932, when after giving notice that it no longer intended to be bound by the lease, it vacated them. In August of the same year, Berner brought suit in this court against the lessee and the guarantors to recover the then unpaid rent as well as all installments which might remain unpaid at the time of the trial. This was in conformity with section 5667 of the General Statutes, Revision of 1930, which permits one to offer evidence of and to recover judgment for damages accruing subsequent to the bringing of the action. Eventually, judgment entered for the plaintiff to recover $3,541.08, representing the amount of rent unpaid as of January 1, 1933.
In the meantime, Berner, acting as agent for the Manning Company in conformity with the provisions of the lease which he still maintained was in force, executed another lease to one Brandwen who has ever since occupied the premises and paid rent therefor in amounts...
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