Saul v. McIntyre

Henderson, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Amelia McIntyre, a tenant of the first floor and basement of the premises 226 North Gay Street, brought suit in the Circuit Court No. 2 of Baltimore City for specific performance of a purported lease, or agreement to lease those premises, or for a decree requiring the appellants to execute, acknowledge and deliver such lease, which was filed as an exhibit. Upon the filing of a combined demurrer and answer, testimony was taken, and the chancellor overruled the demurrer and signed a decree that ⁴¹⁶ the paper writing designated as a lease be specifically-enforced and that the defendants be enjoined “from taking any action which would interfere with the tenancy of the said Amelia McIntyre under the terms of the said paper writing designated as a lease * * *, so long as she complies, with the terms thereof.” The defendants appeal from that decree. The facts are virtually undisputed, and have been heretofore considered by this court in another connection.

In May, 1944, the premises were owned by Charles F. Klein and wife and by them leased to William R. Curry in a document executed under seal by Klein and Curry but never acknowledged or recorded. Mrs. Klein was not mentioned in this lease and did not sign it at that time. Curry entered into possession and conducted a restaurant on the premises, with a beer and wine license, application for which was assented to by Klein, until April, 1945, when he sold the business and assigned the lease to the appellee. On January 22, 1947, Klein and wife conveyed the property 226 North Gay Street to the appellants.

A contract of sale, reciting that the property was subject to the lease exhibited to the appellants, was signed by both Mr. and Mrs. Klein. Subsequently she signed the lease. Mrs. Klein was present when her husband signed the lease in 1944, and when he signed a consent to the assignment of the lease in 1945. The appellants were shown the lease at the time of settlement and secured a reduction in the purchase price because of an option therein to the tenant to renew the lease “for additional one year periods for a total of nine (9) years in addition to the original one year term of this lease.” The lease further provided that it should “renew itself automatically from term to term for the said nine (9) option years unless the tenant shall give at least 30 days written notice, to the landlord, prior to the expiration of any term, of his intention not to exercise his option privilege * * *”.

After the conveyance of the property to the appellants, they refused to consent to an application by Amelia ⁴¹⁷ McIntyre for renewal of her beer and wine license. She brought suit in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City to require such consent. A decree directing them, as owners, to “execute with approval” such application was affirmed on appeal to this court. Saul v. McIntyre, 190 Md. 31, 33, 38 , 57 A. 2d 272, 274 .

We held that “on November 20, 1946, one of the terms of the existing tenancy was that the premises might be used as a beer and wine restaurant, with the necessary license assents by the owners. Just when this became a term of the tenancy is for present purposes not material”. We found it unnecessary to decide whether the lease was invalid at law, on account of the failure to acknowledge and record the lease, which under the renewal clauses might extend for a period of more than seven years, or whether if invalid at law, it was specifically enforceable in equity. We held that Amelia McIntyre was “at least a tenant from year to year”, and that use of the premises as a beer and wine restaurant was a term of the tenancy, either by reason of an original understanding between the parties, or a collateral or