Agnew's Inn, Inc. v. Mayor of Rockville

McWilliams, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. In disposing of this muddle we find it possible to be somewhat peremptory since disclosures at argument have made the appeal moot. We shall, of course, dismiss the appeal but it must not be supposed that, in doing so, we have shirked the chore of studying the record and of pondering the arguments of counsel. Our efforts in this regard fully persuade us that, were we not to dismiss, we would affirm the inquisition from which the appeal was taken.

To bring things into focus a summary of what happened seems desirable. In September 1956 Helen Agnew owned a 0.60 acre lot in Rockville improved by a restaurant and tavern known as Agnew’s Inn. On 20 September she leased it to Herman Sussman and Wayne Borton for a term of ten years with an option to renew for a further term of ten years. The lease was never recorded.

Some time thereafter Sussman and Borton caused the appellant corporation (the Inn) to be formed. There is no record of an assignment of the lease to the Inn. In October 1963 Evelyn Cooper acquired all of the stock of the Inn. The lease was assigned to her by Sussman and Borton; Helen Agnew consented to the assignment as required by the lease.

In December 1965 Evelyn Cooper and the Inn, describing themselves as tenants, gave notice that they were exercising the option to renew. Renewal was refused, at least inferentially, one week later. Three and one-half years later, in March 1969, counsel for the Agnew heirs, rejecting the notion that the ten year lease had been renewed, gave notice to vacate the premises. For some time the appellee (Rockville) had been moving toward the acquisition of the property for an urban renewal project and on 30 September 1969 it filed its condemnation petition, naming the Agnew heirs, the Inn and Humble Oil and Refining Company as defendants.

Humble disclaimed any interest in the property. The Inn answered claiming to be the lessee under a “lease which will not expire until” 20 September 1976. With its an ⁷⁰⁰ swer the Inn moved for a separate trial to have the value of its lease determined. In, March 1970 the trial judge, Shure, J., in considering the preliminary