K. C. S., Ltd. v. East Main Street Land Development Corp.

Gilbert, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Does “the right of first refusal,” of specified real property, embodied in a lease between a corporate landlord and its tenant include the right to purchase from the landlord’s stockholders all the authorized and issued outstanding stock ¹⁹⁷ of the corporate landlord? The Circuit Court for Wicomico County (Simpkins, J.) decided that it did not. The appellant-tenant, steadfastly of the belief that it possessed such a right, has appealed.

THE FACTS One of the appellees, the East Main Street Land Development Corporation (Landlord) 1 is the owner of certain real estate on East Main Street and on Market Street in Salisbury, Maryland. On September 15, 1973, Landlord leased the property designated as 308 East Main Street to the Del-Mar-Va Beauty Academy, Inc., for a term of five (5) years. The lease also contained the seeds to this litigation in the form of the clause “[t]he tenant has the right of first refusal to buy this property by matching any legitimate offer during the term of this lease.” 2 Del-Mar-Va assigned the lease to the appellant-tenant, K. C. S., Ltd. (Tenant) on October 27,1976. We infer from the record that sometime in the late summer or early fall of 1977, 3 Landlord listed its real property, including the property in which appellant is a tenant, with a Salisbury realtor at an asking price of $155,000.

The parties have stipulated to the then following sequence of events: “1. That a written offer to purchase the real estate, in the amount of $140,000.00 was made by... [Appellees] Bendler and Onley to the East Main ¹⁹⁸ Street Land Development Corporation during the latter part of September. This offer was rejected. 2. By letter dated September 29th and delivered on October 2nd, East Main Street withdrew the listing of the property. 3.

On October 8th, ... [Appellees] Bendler and Onley made an oral offer to purchase the real estate for $155,000.00 which offer was not accepted. 4. On October 10th, [Appellee] Robert G. Emond, who was aware that Bendler and Onley were interested in purchasing the stock of the corporation, entered into a discussion with his accountant and agreed that it would be advantageous. 5. On October 15th, a contract or agreement for the purchase of stock for the purchase price of $155,000.00 was tendered to Robert G. Emond, President of East Main Street Land Development Corporation and was accepted. K.C.S., Ltd. was aware of the fact that the property had been listed for sale, however, no specific offer by a third party to purchase the property or stock was ever communicated to K.C.S., Ltd. K.C.S., Ltd. now and at all times mentioned was ready, willing and able to match a legitimate offer for the purchase of the property and/or stock for $155,000.00.” Tenant filed a bill in equity against Landlord, its stockholders, the contract purchasers of Landlord’s corporate stock, the realtor and the real estate agent.

The bill prayed, inter alia, that the chancellor enjoin the “sale or exchange of the stock and/or real estate and/or improvements of East Main Street Land Development Corporation to anyone other than Complainant....” The case was heard by Judge Simpkins on an agreed statement of facts, conforming to the stipulations set out above. ¹⁹⁹ THE LAW Aside from our observation in n. 2, supra, there are two (2) separate and distinct things involved in this matter, namely, 1) the real property and 2) the corporate stock of Landlord. The general rule is that when a lease, as here, contains a “right of first refusal,” a lessee may enjoin the lessor from selling the demised property to anyone other than the lessee. Straley v. Osborne, 262 Md. 514, 524 , 278 A. 2d 64, 70 (1971). See also Westpark, Inc. v. Seaton Land Co., 225 Md. 433, 449-50 , 171 A. 2d 736, 743 (1961); Annot., 170 A.L.R. 1068 (1947); 49 Am.

Jur. 2d Landlord and Tenant § 374 (1970); 1A A. Corbin, Contracts § 261 (1963). The word sell ordinarily means to transfer title or