Karaoke Heroes NH, LLC v. RVRM Enterprises, LLC

Syllabus

The plaintiff appealed from the trial court's judgment awarding damages to the defendant on the plaintiff's claim and the defendant's counterclaim for breach of a commercial lease. The fire marshal required the plaintiff to maintain a secondary egress, an emergency exit door, in order to operate as a karaoke bar. The emergency exit door opened into a parking lot oper- ated by a nonparty, K Co., and bollards had been placed to block a parking space directly in front of the door to prevent vehicles from obstructing the emergency exit. K Co. had entered into a written license agreement with the plaintiff's predecessor for the use of the parking space, and, although the plaintiff continued to pay a license fee to K Co., the plaintiff never entered into a written license agreement with K Co. During the term of the lease, K Co. removed the bollards and reported to the fire department that the plaintiff no longer had a right of egress from the emergency exit door. The plaintiff claimed, inter alia, that the court erred in determining that the subject property was compliant with all relevant laws and regulations upon the execution of the lease and, thus, the defendant had not breached the lease. Held: The trial court's findings that the premises was compliant with all relevant laws and regulations at the time the lease was signed were not clearly errone- ous, as there was an implied emergency access agreement between K Co. and the plaintiff at that time because the license agreement between the plain- tiff's predecessor and K Co. continued on a month-to-month basis between K Co. and the plaintiff due to the plaintiff's continued payment and K Co.'s continued acceptance of the monthly license fee. The trial court properly determined that the defendant did not breach the lease by failing to provide the plaintiff with an egress agreement with K Co., as the only ingress and egress mentioned in the lease was an entrance accessed through an alleyway, not the emergency exit throug