Caroline S. Vahey

Caroline S. Vahey (Of Counsel-Philadelphia, PA) prevailed in a commercial real estate trial in Philadelphia Commercial Landlord Tenant Court. The plaintiff landlord had a lease with the firm’s oil company client to occupy premises in Philadelphia. Our client assigned the lease to a third party almost two decades ago. As the lease was set to expire in 2011, the assignee attempted to extend the lease without notice to the firm’s client, and attempted the same in 2016. Eventually, the assignee stopped paying rent and taxes and abandoned the property; the landlord sued the firm’s client for the unpaid amounts. At trial, Caroline argued that the third party was not authorized to extend the lease on the oil company’s behalf – particularly without notice. While Caroline was armed with case law supporting her legal arguments, the court was most compelled by doctrines of equity and fundamental fairness in entering a judgment in favor of the firm’s client, holding that the lease expired in 2011. Caroline’s client could not be bound by attempted extensions by the assignee and was not responsible for the year of unpaid rent and taxes.