Haber Law Prevails in Lawsuit on Behalf of South Miami Market

Haber Law Equity Partner Roger Slade and Senior Associate Eddie Holiday prevailed in a two and a half day trial on behalf of the South Miami Market, a local minority owned convenience store, which had exercised its lease renewal option nine days late after which its landlord rejected the late exercise potentially destroying the market’s ability to continue in business for another fifteen years. The South Miami Market is owned, in part,  by Subroto Sakar, a Bangladeshi immigrant, who immigrated to the United States more than ten years ago. Sarkar speaks English but believed that he needed the assistance of a lawyer to properly put the exercise of the lease option in writing. Sarkar relied upon his former lawyer who helped him purchase the South Miami Market from the landlord who continued to hold the lease. The problem was that Sarkar did not realize that his former lawyer had retired and, despite Sarkar’s email to the lawyer requesting assistance, he did not hear back. Subsequent efforts to find another lawyer to assist him were complicated because the lease option exercise was due during the 2022 holidays. 

Sarkar testified that he spoke to his landlord, with whom he had a good relationship, in late December, 2022, before the option was due, and the landlord recognized the extension of the lease but wanted Sarkar to “put it in writing.”  Sarkar’s second lawyer put it in writing, but not until January, 2023, nine days after the deadline. The landlord rejected the late exercise of the lease option in February, 2023 claiming that it wanted to take the business back. The evidence at trial showed that the late exercise of the lease option could have been a costly mistake since Sarkar and his partner had invested more than $500,000 into the business over the course of the first five years of the lease. 
 
Slade and Holiday argued to trial judge Beatrice Butchko that Florida law recognizes a trial court’s ability to exercise its “equitable discretion” to excuse the late exercise of the option if the tenant can prove that the late exercise was the result of a mistake accompanied by “special circumstances.” In ruling in favor of the tenant, Judge Butchko found that the tenant had simply made a mistake in relying upon his former attorney to send notice of the exercise of the option and by relying on the landlord’s oral recognition of the exercise of the option. The Court also found special circumstances and ruled that the delay in exercising the option was slight. 
 
The South Miami Market remains open for business.