Chesapeake Brewing Co. v. Mt. Vernon Brewing Co.

Burke, J. delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from an order of the Circuit Court of ⁵²⁹ Baltimore City granting an injunction; with leave to the defendants to move for a dissolution thereof at any time after filing answers to the bill, and giving the plaintiff five days previous notice of the motion. The appellants, after filing separate answers to the bill, took this appeal. In determining the propriety of the order, we are confined to the averments of the bill, and the facts stated therein must be assumed to be true.

Haight and O'Connell v. Burr, 19 Md. 130 ; Shannon v. Wright, 60 Md. 520. We have, therefore merely to decide whether the facts stated in the bill justified the passage of the order appealed from. The facts are few and simple. The Chesapeake Brewing Company and the Mt.

Vernon Brewing Company are rival corporations engaged in the manufacture and sale of lager beer and other malt liquors. The last named corporation has been engaged in the business of brewing beer in Balti-. more City for more than two years, and in order to enable it to introduce and sell its beer it has leased a number of pieces of property in city to be used as saloons, wherein the beer brewed by it is sold. For this purpose it leased from Alice Havez, one of the defendants in this suit, the premises known as No. 1401 Patapsco street in City of Baltimore for the term of five years. The agreement of rental is under seal, and bears date the 28th of November, 1905.

The tenancy was to begin on January 1st, 1906, and end on the 31st day of December, 1910. The lessee covenanted to keep the premises in good order, and surrender the peaceful and quiet possession of the same at the end of the term in as good condition as when received, the natural wear and tear of the property and unavoidable accidents excepted. The rent tobe paid was three hundred dollars per year, payable monthly.. The agreement also provides that the tenant will not use, or permit the use of the property for purposes other than those of a saloon and restaurant, and that it will not at any time assign the agreement or sub-let the property, or any portion thereof without the consent in writing of the landlord, or her representatives.

It is further provided that if the rent ⁵³⁰ shall be thirty days in arrears the landlord shall have the right to distrain for the same, or to re-enter and take possession; and if the tenant shall violate any of the aforegoing covenants on his part herein made, the landlord shall have the right without formal notice to re-enter 'and take possession. It is further provided that the agreement, with all its provisions and covenants, shall continue in force from term to term after the expiration of the term above mentioned; provided however, that the parties hereto, or either of them, can terminate the same at the end of the term above mentioned, or at any time thereafter, by giving at least sixty days _previous notice thereof in’ writing. The Mt. Vernon Brewing Company took possession of the premises under the terms of this agreement, and with the knowledge and consent of the landlord entered into a verbal agreement with George LeBarre, one of the defendants, to the effect that the said LeBarre should occupy the premises for the purpose of conducting a saloon as a monthly tenant of the said Mt.

Vernon Company and pay unto it as such tenant the sum of twenty dollars per month, payable on the first day of each month, and also as an express condition of such rental the said LeBarre should purchase all beer sold by him from the Mt. Vernon Brewing Company. On September 14th, 1907, Alice Havez, the lessor, wrote the Mt. Vernon Company that she had leased the premises to the Chesapeake Brewing Company, claiming that under the terms of the agreement the plaintiff’s lease had been forfeited.

The plaintiff replied to this letter insisting that its lease was still in force, and stating that any step detrimental to its interest which the Chesapeake Brewing Company, or the lessor might take would be resisted by legal action. The plaintiff had violated none of the terms and conditions of the lease under which it held the property. The bill charges that after receiving the above mentioned letter from its lessor, the plaintiff heard nothing from the Chesapeake Brewing Company, and no demand was ever made upon it by said