Thrifty Payless v. Rajkovich
After a bench trial in this case, the court issued declaratory relief and granted a permanent injunction. That latter relief enjoined the current owners of the Hacienda Gardens Shopping Center in San Jose from constructing improvements to the center that violated the terms of a 1986 drug store lease between the prior owners and Payless Drug Stores Northwest, Inc., which, through acquisition, had assigned the lease to Thrifty Payless Inc., doing business as Rite-Aid. The pertinent lease terms concerned the landlords inability to construct buildings in the (defined) common facilities of the center, which included parking areas, without the tenants consent and the landlords obligation to maintain a ratio of two square feet of parking area to one square foot of building area in the shopping center. In late 2004, Hacienda Gardens obtained the City of San Joses approval to go forward with the proposed improvements. It began demolition and planned to go forward with construction of the proposed redevelopment even though Rite-Aid had refused to give its consent as provided in the lease and had expressed its objection to any reduction in the parking area ratio, positions which Hacienda Gardens argued were unreasonable. Rite-Aid sued for injunctive relief to enforce the terms of the lease, a remedy provided for therein, and the trial court issued the permanent injunction enjoining Hacienda Gardens threatened violations of the lease even though the court also found that the proposed improvements would be beneficial to the community and surrounding neighborhood and that Hacienda Gardens had spent significant time and money in pursuing the development as proposed. The judgment is affirmed.
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