First Nat. Stores, Inc. v. Yellowstone Shopping Center, Inc.

• Decision Date: 10 July 1967
• Citation: 28 A.D.2d 873,281 N.Y.S.2d 873
• Parties: FIRST NATIONAL STORES, INC., Appellant, v. YELLOWSTONE SHOPPING CENTER, INC., Respondent.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 873

281 N.Y.S.2d 873

28 A.D.2d 873

FIRST NATIONAL STORES, INC., Appellant, v. YELLOWSTONE SHOPPING CENTER, INC., Respondent.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department.

July 10, 1967.

Before RABIN, Acting P.J., and HOPKINS, NOLAN, BENJAMIN and MUNDER, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY THE COURT.

In an action to declare the rights of the parties under a super-market lease and for a permanent injunction to enjoin defendant from terminating the lease and from commencing summary proceeding to remove plaintiff from certain demised premises, plaintiff appeals from (a) an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County, entered May 3, 1967, by which the Court declined to take jurisdiction of the action, dismissed the complaint, and denied the motion for a temporary injunction, and (b) the judgment dismissing the complaint, entered May 10, 1967.

Order and judgment reversed on the law, with costs, and judgment directed to be entered in accordance herewith.

Pending appeal, the parties filed a stipulation authorizing this court to determine the issue herein as a matter of law.

Pursuant to the aforesaid stipulation, this Court holds that, because of the use to which it put the premises, it was the tenant's obligation under the lease to comply with the Fire Department order requiring the installation of a water sprinkler system in the cellar of the subject super-market (1 Rasch Landlord and Tenant and Summary Proceedings, § 596; 4370 Park Ave. Corp. v. Hunter Paper Co., 10 Misc.2d 1098, 171 N.Y.S.2d 358, affd. 6 A.D.2d 684, 174 N.Y.S.2d 949, leave to appeal denied 6 A.D.2d 866, 175 N.Y.S.2d 1021; Vogel v. Medlin, 201 N.Y.S.2d 393, revd. 226 N.Y.S.2d 609, affd. 18 A.D.2d 1052, 238 N.Y.S.2d 664).

The instant action sought a declaratory judgment, a form of relief which is essentially equitable in nature (26 C.J.S. Declaratory Judgments § 105). 'Once a court of equity has jurisdiction of a cause, it has the power to dispose of all the matters at issue and grant complete relief' (Ferguson v. Village of Hamburg, 272 N.Y. 234, at 239, 5 N.E.2d 801, at 802). At bar, the submission of the parties encompassed not only the question of whose obligation it is to install the system but also the collateral and perhaps more important question as to whether the lease could be terminated by the landlord on account of the tenant's alleged default in installing the sprinkler system. The landlord has invoked the applicable lease provisions with regard to terminating it when the tenant has been in default under its terms and it would be possible to, therefore, declare the lease to be at an end. However, in our opinion the tenant was acting in good faith when it brought the declaratory judgment action, and it would be a harsh and...